MOTUC General News

[PrfktTear]

i don't think the art is great by any means, but in the opinion of this guy who has never taken art class or even so much as picked up a book on how to draw comic characters I think its okay.

I prefer the classic art though. I'll definitely be keeping my Wind Raider box on display for a long while!

I think thats what toy lines today are missing --- great art. I think the epic art from boxes, posters, and comics really helped give MOTU that EPIC feel.

[Lay Ze-Man]

you're telling me this guy : http://davidrapozaart.deviantart.com/ couldn't have done better, and likely for less money?

Is that just a fan-art guy? That stuff is pretty sweet!
If he were paired up with the 4H for the boys to give him certain suggestions to bring those a little closer to their sculpts (without being digi-paintings of the figures), that could make for some truly epic stuff!

Just as PrfktTear says, that old artwork absolutely helped give MotU its deserved epic feel, which all other media and merchandise couldn't properly capture at the time, and which practically nothing has in the interim.

So every time the new Mattel stuff moves further AWAY from that epic quality of that old art, it bums me out.

I mean, some stuff (like Vikor and Battle Cat and so on) approaches it, but the direction on this art is a clear step backwards IMO.

[dayraven]

exactly, motu boxes were like molly hatchet album art man, even if the toy sucked, the allure of the incredible art moved units on it's own, and it contributed directly to the play pattern of the figure.

on a complete side note... you know, the digital era of music means the death of two significant factors to the music word... liner notes, where the crew who worked on the music are given their due, and album art. there are a lot of albums out there, dating a very long time back, that have some incredible album art on the "cover" and interior of the liner notes. bands like tool, led zeppelin, molly hatchet, and many others have done some really incredible album art... and the download system pretty much sees that go out the window. and of course, in the liner notes, it's worth note that sometimes, it's good to know who wrote the lyrics, or who the session bassist was, or who the album's producer was. again, kids lose out on that knowledge, and perhaps, miss being able to follow an artist who contributed greatly to an album they like. you know, i love for vinyl lovers, CDs were a huge jump that they weren't comfortable with, but at least CDs didn't eliminate the need for real artists.

[DrRampageo]

We had soem amazing MOTUC customs this week on Saturday Night Customs from Matthew Gregory
http://www.plasticgraveyard.com/?p=3287

[PrfktTear]

Some nice looking customs!

[dayraven]

holy jeebus. that dude hasa a really nice cast going on there.

[DrRampageo]

yeah he does!

[dayraven]

so, we got thunderpunch he-man's bio this past weekend, which i'll repost here in case one hasn't seen it:

When Skeletor banished Randor to Despondos, he used Faker to convince the royal court that He-Man was not only a Gar, but also responsible for the King's "death." This ruse turned the people of Eternia against He-Man and the Masters soon became renegades in their own land. Driving to the underground caves of Tundoria, the Masters reformed as an elite attack squad. They returned to the surface and found not only Skeletor ruling Eternia, but King Hssss and a newly returned Hordak also challenging for control. To enhance his strength for these new battles ahead, He-Man used the Powers of Grayskull to energize his weapons, giving them a new Thunder Punch to combat evil!

so, on the whole, it's a decent bio... except for one bit... the thunder punch is the upscale result of being cast out and having to fight an underground guerilla fight (i'll let slide the "we're fighting a guerilla war so i'll use a power that makes lots of noise" thing) and we've seen that the battle armor is likewise an upgrade ability of the power of grayskull... remember this?

To adapt to new enemies and situations, Adam has learned to tap further into the great power that his sword unlocks. The combined Power of the Universe and the Knowledge of the Elders is called upon by Adam and channeled through the Sword of He to create new forms of armor and weapons to combat evil. His Battle Armor® was created to protect He-Man® during his early battles with Skeletor® and his evil warriors. Using the Power of Grayskull™, He-Man® — The Most Powerful Man in the Universe™, is now shielded by his mighty Battle Armor®!

so, we've set up the precedence that he gets mission specific upgrades... thunder punch is the "retake the throne" upgrade, battle armor was "i'm still very new at this" upgrade... but there are a lot of variants, especially if they include the MYP variants (snake armor, ice armor, samurai armor, etc...) and there are only three core villains w/ essentially 3 skill sets to fight. we know the horsemen have in the past concocted a horde armor, and i expect, given that hordak features pretty prominently in the classics mythos, we'll one day get that variant. but king hsss is kind of being downgraded here, so what's the excuse for the snake armor? or has the narrative written that variant out of relevance? since there are no ice themed villains, is the ice armor off the table? since gy-gor has been kind of soft sold in the bios, does that mean no jungle armor? (not that anyone has been clamoring for the jungle armor, just asking for the sake of discussion)

what i mean in a larger sense is, has their bios writing exposed their sell plan? the narrative isn't exactly a solid quilt of sensible interwoven content, but it seems like they have a pretty specific overall story in mind, and it seems to me like some of the possible "make our nut on this line by conning the fanbase into buying more variants" has been sloppily ruled out by their slapdash narrative. for example, we had to con them into selling us BA faker, which honestly was the most "no starfruit sherlock" variant i can even imagine... they are NOT thinking this through, WE ARE.

BTW, one last note... they mangosteen up battle cat. i just realized it tonight, just a couple hours ago, while unpacking a box in my new abode. how many poses do we have of he-man and battle cat coming over a hill, around a corner, whatever, and the two of them are staring majestically off to the west, (but here's the key) while sitting starkly up. any cat owner can tell you, when a cat is curious, or trying to be majestic, they're excellent at it, and they stand upright, head up and ears forward, and they're stunning creatures to look at. battle cat struck a lot of those poses. ears forward, eyes forward, head up, legs erect under the torso, ready to trot off in any direction. but the toy we got has it's ears down, and it's head doesn't even come all the way parallel to the shoulder... that's panthor pose. head down, ears back, eyes squinted to survey the area with ill intent on the brain. panthor hung his head, he skulked about in sneaky cat mode, legs held half bent and tucked almost under the tummy, ready to pounce... but that's not battle cat. the point here being, i understand, to a degree, re-use for the two cats of some body parts... but they should have had substantially different heads, and completely different necks to allow character accurate posing. there's no reason that battle cat shouldn't be able to stand tall.

[He-Mullet]

Well, the "Bio Writing Team" are using the bios to tell a story instead of making the bios about the characters.
BA He-Man kinda gave a decent reasoning to use the variants and make them valid in canon... Sadly, they used them wrong. Bios should be about the characters and the story could be posted on Mattycollector.com

Here's how I would have gone with it:

Battle Armor He-Man:
To adapt to new enemies and situations, Adam has learned to tap further into the great power that his sword unlocks. The combined Power of the Universe and the Knowledge of the Elders is called upon by Adam and channeled through the Sword of He to create new forms of armor and weapons to combat evil. The Battle Armor® protects He-Man® in dire situations where an Absolute Defense is required. Using the Power of Grayskull™, He-Man® — The Most Powerful Man in the Universe™, is now shielded by his mighty Battle Armor®!

Thunder Punch He-Man:
To adapt to new enemies and situations, Adam has learned to tap further into the great power that his sword unlocks. The combined Power of the Universe and the Knowledge of the Elders is called upon by Adam and channeled through the Sword of He to create new forms of armor and weapons to combat evil. The Thunder Punch allows He-Man® to Strike Evil with the power of Thunder. This temporary upgrade gives He-Man® The Ultimate Offense and a new way to combat evil!

For the Flying Fists it would be Short bursts of Super Speed related... With no silly story muddying the bio.
I'd take these "3 Upgrades" as a temporary boost to his power with some restrictions. (Their limits are placed by Adam to protect his secret.)
-Snake Armor is just one of the armors used by King Grayskull, which Adam will have access to.
-Ice Armor is just the Default Armor for He-Man to use in Extreme cold.
-Samurai Armor (Blegh!) was a one-time use of the Legacy Stones
(I'm ignoring the rest of the 200X Toy variants)

Now where does that Leave the Laser Power and New Adventures Armors?
Laser Power is He-Man's Basic look on Etheria, while NA is his look on Primus. (Something Something to blend better in each world that is not his own.)

[dayraven]

that would be the easy way he-mullet... but that's not how mattel works. logistics and all.

but yeah, your explanations make total sense (and would fun retcons). they're trying to make a narrative point though about each upgrade, and all i'm saying is, that becomes increasingly difficult to do the more variants you release... like at some point, none of these upgrades serve dual purposes? we can't hit hordak w/ a thunder punch, or we can only use snake armor when fighting snake men? like you mentioned, on the flying fists, your explanation works, short burst of speed as necessary, etc... but if you try to weave a story around the flying fists, we're already at the point in the story where we're fighting back as resistance guys when the noisy upgrade comes, so why do you need more upgrades? the only real explanation would be "well, the thunder punch wasn't sufficient to win the day" but that leaves you the consumer thinking "i just bought the wes welker he-man?"

it doesn't help that mattel is moving the narrative along too quickly... anyone else getting the sense that we're almost at the end? i do... and the line is "planned through 2016" well, if the bad guys have already unleashed the other bad guys, and then the bad guys subsumed those bad guys, and deported the good guys, and the remnants of the good guys are rallying and going all " vive la resistance," then what's left? good guys win back the day, rescue deported heroes, grow old and fat and start listening to john tesh, who will no doubt be the last of the matty 30th anny figs. oh, they'll call him "el-dor" but his real name will be "j'honn tesssh of the clan tesssh" *series of spastic colon gestures* cuz they're original like that.