Club Third Earth: Thundercats from MattyCollector

The newest action figure subscription from MattyCollector goes on sale on Monday 1/11/16. Club Third Earth will feature six Thundercats action figures plus a sub exclusive figure for a total of seven awesome toys. Lion–O, Jackalman, Pumyra, Club-exclusive: Mumm–Ra , Panthro, Grune and Jaga.

*** Club Third Earth did not go on sale on 1/11/16, the date on MattyCollector was changed to To Be Determined. Stay tuned for more information.

Hordak - Vintage MOTU

Hordak, leader of the Evil Horde, was designed to be a new villain for He-Man but landed the role of being the big bad guy for He-Man's sister She-Ra in the cartoon. I had Hordak as a kid and loved him, but I sold off all my original Masters of the Universe toys at one point. Since I started recollecting, I had a Hordak but he was missing the cape.  I saw this one at a toy show cheap so I grabbed him. I am thinking of giving the other a custom Filmation cartoon paint job.

I have his white Horde Crossbow already and thing one came with  his bat/shield accessory. His armor and paint is really clean and in great shape on this particular figure. Happy to finally be able to display a complete figure on my shelf.

What SDCC Reveals have you excited?

 I love SDCC Comic Con. I've never been there, but there is always tons of fun news released at the show. It always seems like there is more news about toys and movies at Comic Con than comics. I wanted to talk a little today about some of the stuff that was announced. Some stuff I'm really excited about, while other stuff looks neat but doesn't really tickel my fancy. I don't like stealing other people's images so you'll have to just enjoy my sketches. If you want to see the real thing just google it!

2015 Masters of the Universe Classics Subscription
Along with announcing the rest of the 2014 product line, Mattel finally revealed the first few figures of the 2015 subscription. I can't wait. We know who a lot of the characters for 2015 will be, because they are wrapping up the vintage figures.

Oo-larr (Vintage Mini-Comic He-Man) will be the club exclusive.

Snake Armor He-Man & Battle Armor King Hisss (200x)

Lizard Man (Filmation) come with the Diamond Ray of Disappearance accessory
.
Ninja Warrior (Ninjor) was from the end of the vintage line.

Huntara (Filmation) was the fan choice winner from the She-Ra cartoon.

Snake Armor He-Man played an important role in the 200x cartoon as the Snakemen became the main villain in the later episodes. For the first time in Classics we will be getting a He-Man with the longer anime style hair. I really want an extra of the 200x head. I've been slowly making my own custom 200x He-Man, but the head is the main problem. King Hisss had a unique look in the 200x cartoon, but unfortunately the "snake body" isn't coming in this pack. They will include his snake torso with another figure in this years subscription.

Ninja Warrior comes with a mask and unmasked head as well as several ninja weapons. Oo-Larr is He-Man without any of his armor and bare feet. He comes with a spear and two versions of his head. One looks like He-Man from the original mini-comic, the other is identical to the vintage action figure.

 Mattel also announced MOTU Giants. These are 12" tall versions of the vintage figure. Basically they've seen that Gentle Giant doing well selling the scaled up Star Wars figures so they are trying it as well. First up is He-Man, Skeletor, Stratos, and Beast Man. They look cool, but are expensive. I'm also worried they will have issues standing up some day like the vintage figures. There are some sort of notches in the giant figures hips to help them stand.

Unfortunately, unlike Gentle Giant, the Mattel giant figures aren't coming in resealable, fan friendly packaging.

I'd kind of like to get He-Man, but I'm hoping they change his head before the final release. His head sculpt doesn't perfectly match the vintage figure which is a bummer.

 NECA had a lot of cool toys to show off. I don't collect a lot of NECA stuff, but I do like looking at them. I am really excited about the Queen Alien they announced from the film Aliens. She's such an awesome and imposing monster. At the size they are making her I think she will be really awesome displayed with my Kenner Aliens toys.

Another really cool looking toy from a company I don't usually collect is the Hot Toys Marty McFly. I don't know why I like him more than say a super hero or GI Joe character in the same format, but the photos of Marty from SDCC looked great.

Speaking of GI Joes, I didn't see anything from Hasbro for their
 3 3/4" line. They did show some cool Kre-O figures.

 Gentle Giants is releasing Jumbo GI Joe figures. Based on the original Straight Arm figures. They are kind of cool, but I think the Straight Arm Joes are inferior to all the later figures in the line. I'm going to pass on these guys but if they ever do some of the later characters I might pick up one or two. I have two jumbo Star Wars figures currently.

The final toy line I want to talk about is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. More Nick toons figure to come including a cool looking Party Wagon Van. This thing looks way cooler than the Shell Raiser. There are also 90's movie inspired Classics figures coming soon and they will be followed by 90's cartoon styles Shredder and Krang. Too bad I missed out of the previous wave that included Bebop and Rocksteady.

Double "Trouble" Mischief - MOTUC

This just in from Matty Collector,  Double Mischief has arrived. She's the first figure from the Club Etheria subscription service. I think she's the character announced for the She-Ra mini-sub so far that I was least excited about. Double Mischief is a female Man-E-Faces with one less face.

Double Mischief is based on a vintage She-Ra figured called Double Trouble. Mattel had some issues getting the name, so she's got a new monicker. She is dressed in a mint green outfit with a clear cape. She has silver and gold details and an extremely long ponytail coming out the top of her helmet.

Double Mischief's big feature is her two faces. She has a happy face and a sinister face. As an interesting accessory she has a double sided crossbow. Double Mischief is a cousin to Glimmer and to help the Great Rebellion she spies on the Evil Horde by pretending to be a Horde loyalist.

Here's a shot of Double Mischief without her helmet. Obviously she's not meant to be displayed this way, but it's interesting to sort of see the sculpt underneath. The original prototype looked better than the final result. By the end of all the design and molding work DM's chin came out flat with her collar. It's kind of unfortunate. 

Sir Darren & Valor the War Horse

A few weeks ago I found out that Mattel made toys based on a cartoon show I enjoyed in the early 90's called King Arthur and the Knights of Justice. I stumbled upon a few figure from the line at a flea market and then did some research online.

Then last weekend at It's a Toy Show I saw a carded specimen of Sir Darren. I totally remember the dude with a cross bow on his armor. In the show most of the characters weapons materialized out of the armor. Many characters could also call forth spirit animals from their shields as well.

I asked the guy want he wanted for the figure and he actually said he wasn't sure if he wanted to sell the figure. What the hell? Why drag a toy to a show if you aren't going to sell it. I hate that. Then he quoted me a price that was a little to high for my taste. I talked with my buddy Nick a bit and decided to try to get a good price on a package deal later in the show. It worked out and I was able to save a few bucks on Sir Darren, M. Bison, and a toy I will be posting about tomorrow.

After I spotted Sir Darren, but before I worked out the deal for him I was pleasantly surprised to find Valor the Warhorse from the line in a pile of stuff at a booth where I had bought several dollar figures. I asked how much, granted he's missing parts and in rough shape, but I was quoted a dollar so he had to be mine.

Valor is a bit faded, a but paint worn, and a little bit yellowed. He's missing his helmet, his missile firing lance, and a shield or two that clip to the sides of his hind end. He does have his small arrow accessory on his one side. There isn't a lot of information on this toy out there on the internet. I found a image of his box and a couple of photo of the toy, but no real clear images of everything that he originally included. Down the road I may give Valor a custom paint job to revive this old toy. If I can find another, nicer, Valor I'll paint him a different color completely.

 

Here is a shot of the five figures from the 

 This image of the card back shows off a prototype of Valor. The arrows and lance are on opposite sides of the horse. You can also get an idea of what his helmet was like. Notice that the Masters of the Universe Slime Pit is pictured here as a future product for the line. I can't find any evidence that it was actually released.

The black sword that came with some of the Archfiend Skeleton Warriors from the Realm of the Underworld toyline look exactly like Excalibur from this toyline, but Arthur's sword was molded in silver. So the King is borrowing a sword from my Zoloworld figures for this photo on his steed.

Little Plastic... Guts - Mattel

Guts was a line of little plastic army men made by Mattel in the mid 80's. The best thing about Guts was the fact that they had painted details. This set them above most army men. Instead of having different color schemes, Guts actually had different style armies. Below you can see examples of four of the armies. Aikidoe Force, Jungle Fighters, Green Berets, and Laser Fighters are all represented in the photo below. I don't own any Ground Troops, which are basically standard  green army men or Underwater Demolition Team, a force of SCUBA divers in navy blue wet suits. It's amazing that just a little bit of bulk and a splash of paint made these Guts figures seemed a million times cooler than the standard plastic army men.

I really liked the ninja figures from the line. They just seemed so unique. I remember as a kid my buddy Britt had one who wasn't wearing a mask and we always called the figure Larry because we thought it looked like his dad, Larry.

 I do have to mention that the Green Beret in the first photo I traded off a kid in Elementary school and he had painted The gun and boots with White-Out. I scratched most of it off years ago, but some remains.




  This photo shows off a few of the Jungle Fighters. I always liked the fact that the first figure in this photo has a purple mohawk. The center solder seems like he'll be rather unarmed after he throws his grenades. The final figure from the photo always made me thing of Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando. I always loved that scene with the missile launcher.


Laser Fighters were supposed to be a team of space soldiers. My buddy Britt and I always used them as SCUBA divers in his pool. They kind of looked like Cobra Eels from GI Joe to us.

All the Guts figures had unique character names listed on their card backs. Other than the Jungle Fighters and maybe the Aikidoe figures their designs aren't unique enough to bother learning all their names. They were a very cool piece of my childhood. These are some of my favorite figures from my Barrel of Little Plastic Men.

Toy Hunter buys for Mattel

This episode Jordan met up with Scott  AKA "Toy Guru" from Mattel at SDCC. Scott asked Jordan to find the four rare foreign releases from the tail end of the Masters of the Univerrse toy line. Mattel's plan is to display the entire line of vintage Masters figures at next years SDCC.

Next Jordan went to a toy collector's house who collects internationally. He looked at some Micronaut figures there. They dedicated a considerable amount of time talking about Doctor Who. Jordan picked up a 4th Doctor figure on an Italian card back. Finally Jordan finds one of his guest pieces. Tytus the heroic giant. This is a character who has only been released in the United States as part of the modern MOTU Classics
line.

Next Jordan heads to Tennessee to find the Laser Light figures from the Masters line. First he finds a carded Orko figure.  Jordan talked a little bit about the movies Small Soldiers. Finally he gets to see Laser Light Skeletor and  Laser Power He-Man. Unfortunately the card back on He-Man was in bad shape.

Lst Jordan heads to NYCC to bring his finds to Scott from Mattel. Scott immediately zeroes in on the quality of the card backs. In the end he was impressed with Tytus and bought the lot of three toys. I can't wait to see Mattel's display at SDCC.

DC Comics Multiverse - Wave 1

Today I was at Target and I found almost the entire wave of new DC Multiverse figures. The first was is based on the Arkham video games. The second wave will be based on the 70's and 80's movies. I picked up Mr. Freeze, Bane, Batman, and Azrael.. There is also an armored version of Batman and the villain Deadshot who I didn't see... but probably would have passed on anyway.

 They come carded in miniature versions of the same cards that the Batman Unlimited figures were packaged in.  Batman stands about 4" tall while Bane is much closer to 5".

 Bane is dressed in dark blue cargo pants and a leather jacket. He has some grenades attached to his belt. He's a nice looking figure with lots of details, but a few more paint apps would have really help make him stand out.

Azrael is dressed in a gray suit of armor with a white tunic. He has a red hood and other details. He comes with a sword and a sheath that can be held on his side. Azrael has a ton of nice details.

 Batman is wearing his gray and black suit. He has a yellow utility belt and a large batsymbol on his chest. He is similar to the figure from the Infinite Heroes line. This figure has better articulation and is a little taller. Multiverse Batman has much nicer sculpted details than Infinite Heroes. I also think the proportions of his limbs look better as well.

 These figures all have hip joints similar to the DCUC figures also made by Mattel This allows them to do kicks and splits that many other figures can't preform.

Mr. Freeze is wearing a large armored cold suit. He comes with a backpack piece and his freeze gun. His backpack and helmet from the back reminds me of the Space Marines from the table top battle game Warhammer 40,000.I really like he bright blue details and honeycomb pattern on his pants.

Everybody, chill out!

 

I will break you!

 

Cy-Chop - MOTUC

As part of a mini-subscription of all new characters, Matty Collector introduced a bounty hunter to the world of Masters of the Universe in the form of a blue furry cyborg named Cy-Chop. Terry Higuchi who worked on the design team at Mattel got the honor of designing this all new character. Each of the characters created for the 30th Anniversary Mini-Sub were a mix of new and used parts.

Cy-Chop has a new head, belt, weapon hands, and maybe a few others parts. He is mostly made up of reused parts like Beastman's legs and Roboto's clear torso.  Inside of the clear torso are some newly sculpted internal organs.

Cy-Chop's hands are two gigantic scissor hands. Both hands are removable and can be replaced with any of the other "removable" hands or weapons from the line. Other characters that have interchangeable parts include, Hurricane Hordak, Trap Jaw, Horde Prime, and Spikor.

Cy-Chop isn't the greatest figure in the line, but he's also not the worst. I think as a kid I would have loved him. He's so colorful and interesting. The giant weapons and clear torso are all things that an 80's kid would have loved. If it were up to me, I would have included at least one "normal" hand but ideally two. He's like a 70's Marvel Comics Master of Kung Fu villain. How does this guy eat or take a shit?

Star Wars Episode III - Candy Boxes

Several years ago, right after Revenge of the Sith came out, Mars Candy licensed Star Wars for their Halloween promotion. The fun size candies came in glow-in-the-dark wrapers and featured images of Anakin and Darth Vader. I went to Wal-Mart that year to buy candy for the students in my classes. A few of the cases were almost empty, so I carried them up the register and asked the clerk if I could have them as he rang up my purchases. He told me to help myself and I've had these Snickers and M&M boxes laying around ever since. I don't really know what to do with them. I also don't really think they will ever be worth anything, so I don't really know why I hang onto them.

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On a side note, I hate that fact that I am so addicted to Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classic toy line that I consider using sick days on the monthly sale daysso I can order the figures I want before they sell out. I have a subscription, so I get pretty much everything from the line, but on days like today, when the Horde Troopers were on sale, I wish I could buy extra sets. Unfortunately I have work and can't use the internet for personal things. I also don't have a job with a lot of flexibility even if I were allowed to do as I please online. I'm busy teaching classes when these figures go on sale. So shortly after school was out I popped online only to find out that Manteena and the Horde Troopers were already sold out. I don't know if my niece will be a She-Ra fan or not (she's 2 years old) but I have been buying extras of some of the most important Classics figures just in case. I really wanted to pick up some extra Troopers since they are the generic bad guys I also was going to scoop up an extra Manteena. Oh well. The fast sell out times are kind of a pain in the butt for collectors.