This year’s Mattel panel was described in the New York Comic Con program as the place to “get all the latest info on your favorite Mattel collector lines, like Masters of the Universe Classics, DC Universe, Ghostbusters and Watchmen.” But when the slideshow of next year’s releases ended, the only line that’d been shown was MOTU.
Audience members took it upon themselves to turn the Q&A segment into a DC Universe panel. “Will there be other DC figures that use MOTU parts & scale like the recently revealed Dark Knight Returns figure?” and “Are there any plans to release a Michael Keaton Batman?” were a couple of the questions that got Scott “Toy Guru” Neitlich’s standard response (his description, not mine), “We like the idea, but we have no such plans right now.” One audience member came right out and asked why there weren’t as many DC figures being produced as there were MOTU, or more specifically, why there weren’t any playsets, vehicles, creatures, etc. Toy Guru was blunt in explaining that purchases by DC fans dropped even lower than they’d been, and even tho’ there was a slight drop in MOTU interest, there’s still been enough for them to attempt…
The “Castle Grayskull experiment”, as they called it. This won’t be as big of an announcement to you now, due to the details mentioned in today’s online sale, but when this slide went up at the panel, you could feel the excitement explode in the room. A crowd of grown men gasping and sighing is not a sound easily forgotten. Toy Guru explained how the 2 sides will fold together, just like the vintage playset, and that they plan to incorporate many of the classic action features of the original. But after that the similarities end. They’ve already determined the minimum number of details but definitely want to add more depending on how well the $250 pre-order does. Folks, this thing is huge! The very top of the original playset will come up to the eyeballs on this one. If you look at the pie-piece shape that fits into the corner of the opened castle, that is a parking spot where you can plug in the base of your Wind Raider. That’s big! The playset will be a stand alone item, separate from the sub. They may make it available day of the sale for people who didn’t pre-order, but if they do that, Toy Guru made it clear that it would be sold for a substantial amount more.
The remainder of the slides shown covered MOTU action figures, beginning with the rest of the 2012 releases, many of them shown at the recent Power Con. In November, we’ll get Dekker (with young and old heads), Filmation King Randor, and fan contest winner Castle Grayskullman. December will include Mosquitor, Procrustus, and giant Granamyr. 2013 will begin with Netossa and Ram-Man and Jitsu in February.
March’s figure is Fang-Man. The sub figure will be King He-Man and Matty will premiere the new team sticker, “He-Ro, Son of He-Man.” There will also be a club exclusive mini-comic.
The Fighting Foe-Men kick off the second quarter along with Geldor, the fan choice winner.
Strobo will be available at the traveling cons and will come with the unmasked head of Zodac. Snake-Face is April’s figure, Karatii (space mutant) in May, Octavia in June and Clamp Champ in July. CC’s armor may look like a re-use, but we were assured by the Four Horsemen that it’s an all new sculpt.
The final figure to be revealed was the July quarter figure, New Adventures of He-Man from the Galactic Protectors. Everyone was excited to hear that he’ll feature the ball-jointed wrist so that he can hold his sword straight up.
