Masters of the Universe Classics Archives - Page 18 of 104

Masters of the Universe Classics Jet Sled, DC Universe Classics Huntress and Comedian Headline Mattycollector September Sale

For a month with the regular Club Eternia figure pushed out by a month (October will have Lord Dactus and Mantenna doubled up), it still feels like there’s a lot to buy. That’s because the Jet Sled vehicle, potentially the front half to a Battle Ram, is on sale with a pilot called Sky High. The Jet Sled and pilot cost $50, raising the question of why include another random figure. Sure, there were palace guards that rode the Jet Sleds during the original cartoon, but things really got exciting when Teela, Man-at-Arms, or He-Man jumped on one to go chase some Evil Warriors. I think Mattel missed out on a potential army builder vehicle here.

On the DC front,we’re coming down to the wire on Club Infinite Earths and Watchmen with Huntress and the Comedian. I’m still a little shocked that I’m going from three subs this year down to none in 2014, since I’ve decided to cherry-pick Masters of the Universe Classics (when Mattel offers day of sale) and DC was canceled.

Early Access starts Thursday at 8AM PST and will run for a day. Kudos to Mattel – even though their announcement makes no mention of it, the Jet Sled will be available, joining DCUC Poison Ivy and MOTUC Stratos. For convenience, here’s the link to Early Access. The regular sale starts on Monday at 9AM PST.

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You Must Check Out the First Issue of Philip Reed’s BattleGrip Magazine

If you’re not familiar with Philip Reed and his site, BattleGrip, you should check it out. When I started AFP, somehow Philip found the site, and he’s been a really great supporter from our early days – and he’s just that way in the collecting community – a terrific guy.

Earlier this year, Philip published a Kickstarter-funded book about 3rd-party Transformers called Transforming Collections. (There are a couple of copies of Transforming Collections available on Amazon.) I guess that massive effort kept him hooked on publishing, because his latest endeavor is a free downloadable magazine. I’m re-hosting BattleGrip – issue 1 here (click to download – 70MB) to help get the issue out there. If you’re an old-timer like me and miss the days when you could go to a magazine store to pick up one related to toys (or if you just want to know what that was like, in this increasingly online world), then you’ll love this.

A couple of tips – you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader or an alternative PDF reader, and the best way to read this magazine is to set it up in 2-page view (View -> Page Display -> Two Page View) and select the option to show the cover page on its own (View -> Page Display -> Show Cover Page in Two Page View). This will let you see some of the beautiful 2-page spreads, like the Predator Trophy Case above, in all their glory.

Great start to the magazine, Philip, and thanks for the link to my moot-fake-rant about the Club Infinite Earths Doomsday. Can’t wait for issue 2!

Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat-Man by Joe Amato

Joe Amato sent over pics of his latest custom, the Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat-Man. Hey, if Castle Grayskull can be transformed into Castle Grayskullman, then I can see how Battle Cat could become Battle Cat-Man, given all those times He-Man pointed his power sword at him to give him a dose of the Power of Grayskull. Joe’s gone all out with custom packaging and a fully sculpted removable helmet for the man-sized tiger head.

Battle Cat-Man is available on eBay if you want a shot at this one of a kind Masters figure – but I think you’ll have a lot of competition for him. The auction ends Saturday afternoon.

Ask Matty Q&A for 8/31

Just in time for labor day weekend, here’s the Ask Matty Q&A for 8/31. Thanks to Toy Guru and team for answering our questions.

1) You’ve said that 2014 and 2015 would have characters that required more tooling, like Two Bad and Modulok. What does that mean for the number of subscribers needed to support the line? For example, do you need to increase the minimum subscribers needed to support more tooling?

No, the min number of sub holders has stayed the same year to year, we are just very strategic in banking a few fully tool’d figures with other partial tool figures so the year balances out.

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Mattycollector Subscription Results: Masters are a Go, Future of DC is Uncertain, and Ghostbusters are Busted

Masters of the Universe Classics fans have pulled through again, jumping from 91% of the target threshold to a massive 115% in the final four hours of the pre-order window – so Club Eternia has got the green light for 2014. Sadly, Ghostbusters fans won’t be getting the Ecto-1, moving the meter just 1% to 38% in the final hours of the pre-sale.

In the same time period, DC Universe fans managed to jump 5 points from 58% to 63%, but Club Infinite Earths still could not muster enough subscribers to hit even the first tier of the exclusive Doomsday – though I suspect that the tiered system contributed a bit of the sluggishness in the pre-orders, since the first goal was a lackluster jail-suited Doomsday, when compared to the unleashed Doomsday of tier 2. While Club Infinite Earths won’t move forward with the plan partially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, there is still a possibility of getting DC Universe Classics figures through Mattycollector in 2014 – Mattel just has to figure it out.

I’ve got to believe there’s enough fans to support a DC line – maybe this setback with the all-in approach will spur Mattel to rethink something that works better for the fans. We can hope, right?

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