Toy Guru chimed in on Facebook with the official word on Robotogate – they’re all misassembled. Toy Guru offers up his mea culpa, mentions a few others successes and some hope, and, to tide things over, gives collects an update on the MOTU Classics schedule through April.
Here’s what Toy Guru had to say:
Well there is no way around it. Roboto did get assembled with his shoulders swapped.
What can I say. These things happen. I could mention the hundreds of things we do catch and correct before going to production, or all the time we spent making small tweaks based on fan comments such as Skeletor’s purple feet or trying to see if both Roboto’s arms could be detached (which we didn’t have time for but we really tried on!), but none of that changes that in the end a mistake was made.
Luckily in the long run this is not (I hope!) Earth crushing to most. By definition the only change is the pattern of tech on the shoulder. The toy itself functions 100% correctly and is not defective. (that and combined with the fact that the whole production is done means we can’t exchange your Roboto for a corrected version, at this time there are no “corrected” versions.)
It doesn’t mean we won’t try to find a way down the road to correct this. It took almost 4 years but we finally got Sinestro’s height corrected in the DCUC line (check out the 2 pack coming to TRU next month with a ton of yellow and green constructs!).
I’d personally like to find a way to fix this but it will take time. We don’t have a reissue planned right now but it doesn’t mean it is out of the question. I’m sorry for those whom were counting on the tech detail pattern on the shoulder going the other direction. I’ll take the fall on this one and just let you know we continue to be vigilant on getting the best collector product out there. Sometimes we hit a problem. But the important thing is we will try to correct this one day. It just won’t be in the immediate future.
Oh, and while I have everyone on the line, a few updates:
Jan 18th: (Tuesday, sale delayed due to MLK, Jr Day)
Bow (2011 sub figure)
Shadow Beast (2011 sub quarterly beast/multipack)
Palace Guards (2010 item delated slightly)
Castle Grayskull stands (reissue)
Evil Lyn reissueFeb 15: (Tuesday)
Vikor (2011 sub figure)
Other reissues to be announced
(and ideally Preternia He-Man will ship with the map)March 15: (Tuesday)
King Hssss (sub figure)
Battle Armor Skeletor (sub quarterly variant)
Other reissues to be announcedApril 15: (Friday)
New Male Masters of the Universe member (to be announced soon)
Panthor (quarterly subscription beast)
Weapons Rak ($15.00) (not part of subscription)Alright, have a great weekend and I’ll catch you all after El Segundo Toy Fair.
TG
You haven’t heard any comments on Roboto’s shoulders from IAT. There’s two reasons for that – 1) I’ve been gone all week and 2) I’m waiting until the figure arrives next week to decide where I stand. If Roboto really is 100% functional and looks okay, then I’m not going to raise a big stink. Having said that, just because this error has possibly ended up being immaterial, doesn’t mean the next one will be… and that’s a problem. Anyway, we’ll save all that for the review coming sometime next week.
For now, Mattel is waving schedule updates at us. MOTUClassics.Com has been updated with the new information.
Welcome back sir!! Congrats again on your married-ness!!
I’m indifferent on the Roboto issue, at least, until I have him in hand, but I doubt I’ll be upset about it. It doesn’t appear to affect anything. I do agree with you though on the point about small/non issue this time, but it could be worse next time…and that worries me slightly. These are pretty pricey toys to have errors coming out on an entire production run.
January, as has been said numerous times by numerous folks, is going to be a great month (for the kid in me) and a horrible month (for my wallet). But the release schedule looks great and I’m happy to see that Panthor is to be released in April. Come on Matty…show us that April figure (kind of surprised they didn’t, to make up for Roboto, but that just goes to show how unimportant the mistake is)!!
“We effed up roboto, but April will be another heroic master!!!”
Mattel’s full of crap. It’s as simple as that.
I don’t think the shoulders are a problem. None of us noticed they were wrong at SDCC. If they work like TG says they will, we might never have noticed.
$15 for the weapons rack? Does that mean it will only come with the ones pictured then?
Really informative Matty. Buyer beware loud and clear.
I don’t care so much about Roboto, but that January bill is insane. Mattel needs to move that back a month.
Welcome back! How’s married life treatin’ ya?
I’m annoyed about Roboto for the reason you started to point out, how bad a mistake does it have to be for Mattel to act. If it was something really noticeable like the forearms being switched would Mattel still be foisting it on the buyers? What happens then?
CongratS!!
And isn’t taking FOUR YEARS to fix Sinestro disgraceful? I wouldn’t mention that if I were them. LOL
Damn you Mattel! Now I have to get both Evil-Lyn and courtroom Peter on same day.I really want to see Moss Man reissue
I missed out on Roboto due to a job interview… dammit! (looks like I’ll have to hit the scalpers…double dammit!) The answer sucks… Especially the Sinestro part… How long will it take them to fix this issue on Roboto? 10 years!?
January will hurt many wallets. (Luckily I’m only REALLY, REALY interested in Bow… Might try to get one guard set… Shadowbeast? Might have to wait for the reissue)
Can’t they move the guards to Feb. Since He-Conan is all alone… I wonder who is coming with Buzz Off this December?
Mattel is planning on beating our wallets badly:
Nov: Santa KG, Grizzlor, WP#2, Cyber Monday
Dec:Buzz-Off
January’s Clusterbomb
If we can’t handle the onslaught of product I fear they might blame us for it…
Don’t really think the new Grayskull reissue next month is going to fix any issues based on the Roboto response. Grayskull had very loose joints in the first relese. Just more of the same. You can tell. Nothing’s going to change tomorrow.
Boy, I’m glad I’m not a lawyer, because I just might want to put that statement to the test in court.
“We screwed up, it’s wrong, we admit it’s wrong but we’re not offering any kind of replacement or trade-in or fix or anything. Thank you for your money”
And sure maybe in the end it doesn’t matter, it’s not the complete trainwreck of, say, putting two left feet on every piece or something.
But it’s the principle. It’s like they have NO on-site QC person. I mean, when you buy a house you don’t trust the seller’s relator, you get your own and do your own inspections before you sign the papers. It’s got to be the same for a factory, even in China. You don’t trust the FACTORY Q.C. people, they’ll tell you everything is just fine as they ship an entire run of pink He-Man figures, because the color key instructions got mixed up with the Hasbro My Little Pony run. You have to spend the money for your own man (woman, robot, whatever) to be eyes-on and hands-on in the process.
Which I’m willing to bet at this point Mattel isn’t doing. I’d go even further, I bet they sub-contract their QC oversight to a Chinese company that supposedly is completely independent and so on. There is no one from the U.S. *who knows and understands toys* on site to check. I’d bet money on that.
*sigh*
It’s funny, I think everyone missed the problem with Roboto’s shoulders cause they were so mesmerized by the working gears.
Maybe had they not wasted 5 molds per gear just to make it turn like everyone had when they were 5, people would’ve been paying more attention to everything else on the figure, and this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
See folks, nostalgia sometimes comes at a price! ‘:B-)
I personally like how they switched February & March figures. You know King Hssss & Skeletor can’t stand each other!! Also glad that Pre-ternia He-Man is moved up to February…