No Masters of the Universe Classics Two Bad, But Ram Man Returns for Mattycollector January Sale

Mattycollector January 2014 Sale

I’ve been critical in the past that Mattel’s Early Access for Mattycollector subscribers provided little value. However, I can’t really say that about their first sale for 2014 – the remaining Ram Man stock goes up for grabs first in Early Access, and I’m guessing he’ll be gone in a few minutes – way before everyone else gets a shot the following day. Add the fact that the Club Eternia offering, the very popular Two Bad, does not have any inventory available for day of sales, and subscribers to Mattycollector’s last remaining club should be starting off the year happy. Whether this is good for the line overall – I’m curious what you guys think.

The DC Universe Classics Captain Marvel Jr. (aka Freddy Freeman), MOTUC Dekker, and the Ghostbusters Ecto Goggles will also be on sale. Here’s the link to Early Access for January, which opens tomorrow at 8AM PST. All access opens up Wednesday at 9AM PST. Let’s hope this sale does better for Mattel than their December sale – last I checked, none of the items had sold out or even been tagged with the warning of low stock. I was able to add 99 Castle Grayskulls (the order limit) to my cart – $29,700 plus $2,499 for shipping (and don’t forget sales tax!) and they can be yours!

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Border Patrol: Marvel Legends Superior Venom, DC Universe Classics Kyle Rayner and Red Hood

In our first installment of Border Patrol for 2014, we’ve got a Marvel variant that could definitely be made and two DC variants that should have been made.

  • Marvel Legends Superior Venom by glennwebman69 – if Hasbro could make a Marvel Legernds Superior Spider-Man (currently hitting shelves), then they should start thinking about making Superior Venom – after all, it’s the best thing to happen to our favorite symbiote in the comics, just like Superior Spider-Man was the best thing to happen to our favorite web-slinger – ends Jan 16, 2014 16:19:02 PST
  • DC Universe Classics Green Lantern Kyle Rayner by FUMan Studio – back when DC Universe Classics was going strong, Mattel released a Kyle Rayner figure that was pretty ok – it just wasn’t the iconic Rayner from when he was part of Grant Morrison’s JLA – this is a big hole in the line-up, especially since Mattel is releasing a hook-handed Aquaman in its last gasp of DCUC this year – ends Jan 11, 2014 06:00:43 PST
  • DC Universe Classics Red Hood Jason Todd by Mint Condition Customs – don’t get me wrong – I like Grant Morrison, but that doesn’t mean that every action figure made should be from his books – case in point, the Red Hood Mattel released in the Club Infinite Earths subscription was the one featured for just a couple of issues during Morrison’s recent Batman and Robin run – but pretty much everyone I know would have been happier with this version – ends Jan 12, 2014 19:11:12 PST

In AFP’s Border Patrol, we scour active eBay auctions for customized action figures that you won’t want to let slip by!

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Size Counts – a Pictorial Comparison of the MOTUC Castle Grayskull and the Castle of Power

MOTUC Castle Grayskull and Castle of Power 01

While Mattel was still playing coy with regards to its plans for its Masters of the Universe Classics Castle Grayskull playset, Mat O’Toole was set on recreating his vintage Castle in the MOTUC scale. When he finished it, requests for him to produce more started flooding in from collectors worldwide, which he did in limited quantities. Over time, his Castle of Power has grown into a sideline endeavor for him – furnishing Masters-themed accessories for your Castle, whether it’s the official Mattel Castle or not.

I was one of the lucky fans who was able to get one of the replica Castles from Mat. And now that the official Castle Grayskull from Mattel has landed at my doorstep, I figured I ought to take some size comparison photos.

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Want to See How the Four Horsemen Made Castle Grayskull?

Eric Treadaway’s Desk Jockey feature on the SourceHorsemen website has got a cool series of posts underway right now. Taking a twist on the popular holiday theme, it’s the Twelve Days of Grayskull. TDoG covers the creation of the Masters of the Universe Classics Castle Grayskull prototype, starting with the blank armature. Very cool!

They’ve posted eight days so far (I’ve included a few of the pics from the first three), so if you haven’t seen it, you can start catching up before the big finale.

DESK JOCKEY HOLIDAY EDITION: THE TWELVE DAYS OF GRAYSKULL

Back in January, when I was digging my original Castle Grayskull playset out of the basement, my three year old son saw the castle for the first time and was instantly fascinated. He actually came into the office with me that same morning which was when the digitally output armature first showed up at the studio. At that point it went from fascination to a temporary obsession. When I first saw the size of the armature, knowing the amount of time we had to work on this monster, I knew I was in for some very long days and nights at the office! To keep my son up to date on the castle I decided to take shots of the castle every night when I was wrapping up work. It was really the first time I started using my phone to document projects in progress, and it was actually the beginnings of the idea for the Desk Jockey segment!

via DESK JOCKEY HOLIDAY EDITION: THE TWELVE DAYS OF GRAYSKULL «.

Mattel Missing the Mark with Epic Creations?

Movie Masters™ Epic Creations™ DC Classic TV Series Batman™ Utility Belt Movie Masters™ Epic Creations™ Ghostbusters™ Neutrino Wand

Maybe I’ve been conditioned over the years by quick sell-outs, but it was still somewhat of a shock to check in on the Mattycollector December sale to find that the big three Epic Creations items, the Masters of the Universe Classics Castle Grayskull, and the prop replicas for the Batman Utility Belt and the Ghostbusters Neutrino Wand, are all still in stock. None of the three are even at the point where they’ve got the special tags indicating they’re “Almost Gone.” This is particularly surprising for the Castle – from the point of pre-order through the pre-hype for this sale, Mattel has consistently said that they’d have just a very limited amount of Castles for day-of sales.

If we don’t see this change in the short term, here’s what I’ve reasoned could be behind the slower than expected sales.

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