The Cry of Hordak

Yesterday Mattycollector  secretly released a new figure in it's store causing controversy and much outcry.

First let me take you back to 2012, to the New York Comic Con. Mattycollector was present and revealed the Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) figures that we would see through the first quarter of 2013. On the last day a solitary item could be seen that would cause speculation, a white Horde crossbow. We all knew Mantanae would still be to come; however a white crossbow belonged to vintage Hordak. So who did this belong to or was a new weapons pack on the horizon?

Yesterday that question was answered when Mattycollecter silently put up for sale the Spirit of Hordak.

The concept for the Spirit of Hordak figure comes from the mini comic "The Secret Origin of Skeletor." In the mini comic Hordak's physical body is trapped in the dimension of Despondos and can only project an astral image of himself to contact the precursor to Skeletor, Keldor.

Keldor will later strike a deal with Hordak to release him from Despondos in exchange for saving his life.







For the lucky few who have managed to snag one they were greeted with "Congratulations! By magic or by luck, you’ve found a secret figure! "

"This all-clear figure features painted red eyes, chest emblem and removable armband, and comes with a fan-demanded Hordak® cross bow in vintage white. Trust us, this visitor from the dark dimension is up to no good… but you’ll have to get the figure to see his complete bio. Straight from the 2013 mini-comic, “The Secret Origin of Skeletor,” this highly collectable figure is not available with Club Eternia® subscriptions or even during regular monthly sales, so make sure you check back often to try to catch him the next time he decides to project onto this page! "



The back of the card for the Spirit of Hordak was briefly up which also showed his bio (oops).  After a short period of time the card back was removed from the website. His bio is available online, but that is part of the fun.

The Spirit of Hordak was only available online for about 40 minutes and then after being listed as "Sold Out" fans were greeted with a note that said "You're too late. Hordak is back in hiding."

There has been an outcry over how such a release was handled as sub holders, upon purchasing a sub, was told that they would get early access  to figures ahead of time if the were not part of the subscription. Many fans cried foul, that such a release was in violation of Mattycollector's own subscription agreement; however the majority of the response comes from people saying how great of an idea this was as not only to drive traffic back to it's website but also to bring excitement back to the MOTUC line and has not put everyone on a Hordak watch.

Kudos Mattycollector! This was a genius idea and a lot of fun. While I missed out on the sale at the website I will be on my own Hordak watch.

Toyguru of Mattycollector has in the forums stated that the Spirit of Hordak will be available again in the future and through the Early Access program so fear not, Hordak will return. ....which may be a reason to fear it's self.

-Nurd!



"Stinkorgate"

Mattycollector has done it again. They managed to bring us an amazing figure, however there is a debate in the execution.

May 15, 2012 will be Matty Day once again, where new merchandise is available to children and collectors alike and while there are some amazing items coming up the day is plagued by what is being affectionately referred to as "Stinkorgate."

Stinkor is by far a fan favorite in the Masters of the Universe history so everyone was excited to see him come to the MOTUC line. when announced at Power-Con in September 2011. I have to say that Stinkor is an amazing figure that comes with not only his classic MOTU look but also the accessories that give him his 200X deco.

So here is where the situation gets a little hairy (no pun intended). In the version showed at Power-Con you can see that his forearms have ridges that point outwards. This is a very standard look for figures with this formation on the arms, such as Skeletor and Merman.


These are newly casted parts as not to make Stinkor a straight paint swap to Merman. As you can see in the picture to the right there is molded fur coming out from the top of the glove to play more into the fact that Stinkor really is a skunk.

Press pieces have come out and the forearms have been reversed. Now this is nothing new because every time that there has been newly molded pieces they seem to be accidentally reversed such as King Hsss's shoulders and Roboto's shoulders.





Scott "Toyguru" Nietchlich, product manager of the MOTUC line, has stated that this was an intentional reverse to make Stinkor "pop" aesthetically.

Collectors cried foul knowing the track record with Mattycollector and newly molded pieces and claims that Mattel is simply trying to say that this was a design change to cover up for yet another reversal.

Toyguru stated that changes were made in the design phase however the 4 Horsemen, sculptors of the MOTUC line have always been on the front lines whenever there was a comment or concern about design in the past so this one has everyone crying foul. Especially since the anatomy of the arms don't match since reversed.

When asked on their twitter the 4 Horsemen simply states that “We haven’t seen a production version yet so we really can’t comment yet, but we can’t imagine why they would be switched.”

As far as my own thoughts on this situation, I also do not have a production copy in hand so I am laying my opinion to the side till I actually get him. I’m not saying fans and collectors should accept mistakes. It just seems like an ill fated gesture that didn’t pan out like they expected. I for one am happy to add Stinkor to my collection in any manner.

-"Nurd" Pat!

MOTUC Demo-Man

So this is going to be one of those random posts but its one that I was looking forward to and honestly, one that helped pushed me to create this blog in the first place. This post may be late as it covers a December subscription figure in my MOTUC collection but its one that maybe not many have heard of and his name is Demo-Man.

Demo-Man is based on the concept art that was originally intended to be used for Skeletor as He-Man was based on a design that later became the figure of Vikor.

As you can see there isn't that much of a similarity. The only similarity is that of Vikor to Conan the Barbarian, but that's because that's who was the inspiration to create him.

So I was happy to get Demo-Man home because he is one of those obscure characters who really wasn't given an identity of his own until the back story of Skeletor was written.

The one thing that was obvious when I got him home was that this guy is GREEN! There's no mistaking him. I did also notice that I had a hard time taking him out of his white mailer box. I'm not sure if its because his packaging was larger than others or because the mailer boxes were decreased in size. Only time will tell as more boxes come later.

Here is Demo-Man out of his package and yep, hes still green. The green is so bright and neon that its the one thing you notice first about him. Taking a good look at him you could never guess that hes part of Skeletor. His face is a bit skull like but that's as far as it goes.

Demo-Man did come with a variety of accessories. He came with a sword that resembles a scimitar, his mace, a skull in a helmet, and even a Skeletor like face, but I will discuss that one later.
 

It was nice to see the level of detail in Demo-Man because you can tell a lot of care was taken to make this character a reality. His skin is toned in green to reflect muscle forms on his body and his armor and swords have dings and scratches in them. Even the skull in the helmet was a nice addition because it has nothing to do with anything other than its on the ground in the concept art and that it has a peg hole so it can fit onto another characters neck peg.

The head and armor are removable as with most MOTUC figures. The neck peg can be replaced with the alternate Skeletor head or the skull int he helmet.

The alternate Skeletor head is whats known as the Alcala head and that's because when the original He-Man mini comic that came out it was drawn by a man named Alfredo Alcala. His vision of Skeletor gave him a much more gnarly looking face with crooked teeth and these crazy eyes.

Overall I'm glad to have been able to add Demo-Man to my collection today because not only is he an awesome character, there is a lot of back story to him and how he actually came to be a character in the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

-"Nurd" Pat!