9.11.12
A month of MOTU - Part 2
Oh yes, Palos Verdes! Once Power-Con was history (at least for me it is now) on Monday we went visiting Mark Taylor and Rebecca at their beautiful home! Rebecca had invited also Peer and Kevin "Jimpansen", two awesome MOTU fans from Germany and they joined us for the ride.
After being amused by the street names in Palos Verdes, we arrived at Mark's place, where we've been joined by Rudy Obrero and our new pal Errol. Rudy hadn't seen Mark probably since 1982, so that was a great reunion happening in front of all of us!
A sudden toothache prevent Ted Mayer to be there too, but we'll hopefully do it again next year.
I remember Peer being totally in shock for the surreal experince. And I knew what that was like! Hanging out with He-Man creators and artists, and while we had planned that for month, for him it was a totally unexpected turn of events!
Despite me getting a cold, we spent a wonderful day with Mark and Rebecca, enjoying the beatuful view on the Pacific Ocean and listeniing to stories about MOTU, the toy industry, crazy airplane flights and a lot more!
Mark will always have a story to tell, and all of them are fascinating. One funny anedoct was that Mark was telling us about a King Kong playset by Playmates he designed and Rudy exclaimed: "I did the box art for that set!" Without them even knowing, the awesome team the created Graykull and the famous boxart for it, had been reunited by Playmates on another project!
We left Mark and Rebecca later that night, me sneezing like crazy but all very happy for the time spent together. I lef the house not just a fan anymore, but as a friend. The best thing that MOTU brought to my life is definitely the people I met, the friend I made. One day, I will probably make a blog post about this.
The following day, while handling the flu, we didn't stop! Early in the morning we went to visit Dave Wolfram, who showed us some very cool MOTU concept art. We should be used by now, but no, we were once again amazed by the great stuff Dave had. All this is now saved for future Foundation projects of course, so I won't go in details, but among that we also saw a lot of other art for Judge Dredd, Food Fighters and Captain Power! Dave was extremely sweet and let us scan all his art, which is now preserved forever by The Power and The Honor Foundation.
After a quick stop to get some Tylenol, we paid a visit to the Otis College where Rebecca teaches.
Rebecca gave us and Peer and Kevin a tour of the college and well, how can I describe the feeling of being in a college which has an entire floor dedicated to toy design? It felt like the place where I wanted to be! And I was not even sure I wanted to be there teaching or studying! That place is just awesome, and the students are simply amazing. We got a glimpse of their skills and no wondering on why companies try to steal them from the college before they even finish courses.
For anybody interested or just curious, I suggest to check Otis website, just the video presenting the courses it's so captivating already! (and look, Martin Arriola is there too!)
After the Otis, having still some time to kill in LA before our flight back to NJ, we went with Peer and Kevin on hunt for toys and collectible shops. We didn't find anything special, but it was fun! I wish we had more time with both of them, and I hope to see them again soon at Grayskull-Con.
Wow, all this in just 2 days. I want to keep these posts shorts, so let's end this one here for now. The rest of the trip may not sound so exciting, but it's still filled with little MOTU tidbits, so hold on for Part 3!
And, hopefully I will get to make some posts about Castle Grayskull and the DC comics soon too
Oh, and tear apart the new minicomics of course!
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6 commenti:
So cool, man! SO cool! :DD
Hey buddy. I was just re-listining to the Roost Gobble Dinner pod casts again and I have to say, they are definitely not the same without you. No offence to Danielle, I'm sure she's a great person, but that show should really go back to the way it was in the beginning. The RGD could really use your knowledge again.
I'm sure a lot of the fans would agree.
Zap Rowsdower
My knoweldge (especially when it exposed Mattel ignorance on their own brands) was considered toxic and incendiary. The pressure on me to bite my tongue all the time was just too much. RGD was conceived and it is just a tool to win over Mattel's favor. But please keep in mind this has nothing to do with Eamon, Dan or Danielle. They are not responsible for that and they do a great job, trying to be honest about their opinions as much as they can.
I wish I could still have chance to hang out with them in a podcast and have fun discussing MOTU. But that was the problem, there was no fun for me anymore.
The show is just not as informative or unbiased without you, but I can see your point. I was just listening to episode four I believe, but don't quote me, I may be talking about the wrong one. You'll probably know which episode I'm talking about, after all you were there. Dan made a funny comment about fans arguing. At this point, Val made a big deal about the use of the word arguing and corrected Dan for it. I was embarrassed for Dan, so I can see why you wouldn't want to sit there while Val hands down life lessons from on high. I just wanted you to know that your input is missed and was appreciated.
-Zap Rowsdower
Dear Emiliano,
I'm happy you found REAL toy masters at Takara and Hasbro's !
The very sad part about MOTUC is that it is a great brand, but that it is lacking many things due to Mattel and Matty mishandling and mistreating it.
Since the time you left He-Man.org, there are still quality control problems with the MOTUC products (black plastic issue,reversed limbs etc.), more lip service and more lies from Toyguru. There's more and more propaganda on the forum in order to push fans to buy absolutely ANY thing that's MOTUC, even when there are high risks for the fans to regret their purchase afterwards...
The forum seems to be under the constant monitoring and surveillance of a bunch of Mattel employees.
I guess when they decided to exclude you from that community, they made a very big mistake.
Hey Emiliano,
yes that was absolutely a highlight in my life, a 10/10 moment and who will wonder that i was paralized by that line up of great people. Rebecca, Mark, Rudi, Errol, and those great guys from the Power and Honor Foundation! :)
I share your feeling about Otis!
when i was standing there in this great academie full of possibilities, great tools, and buzzing from creative brains...
which artist don´t want to be part of something like that?
And finally YES, one of the best things of being a motu fan is that you come to know new people. And sometimes you have the chance to make friends with them just by some lucky conincidences.
A big thank you to all guys from this day at Mark and Rebeccas garden, and especially to Rebecca who was so sweet to invite us. :)
All the best, Peer