It has been a while since my last post about Masters of the Universe.
But no, this is not a rant about King Hiss torso or Power-Con exclusives, quite the opposite.

After the overly positive experience in San Diego Comic Con, I made a promise to myself and to a few other people to make a post about how the vibes surrounding MOTUC and Mattel are definitely different.
As many of you know, a new team is now in charge of Mattycollector.com and running the MOTUC line. This new team introduced itself for the first time to the fans at the panel at SDCC. I was there, I listened carefully about everything that was said and what the fans' reaction was.
I have to give big props to these new people for the way the presented the new team and all the issues they addressed during the panel. They first recognized the experience with Mattycollector and MOTU, as fans and collector, hasn't been the greatest to say the least.
As they say, the first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one.
After that, I felt a lot more relaxed about the panel, and more than one time I smiled pleased at the things I heard.

I've been a big supporter of words like transparency with the customers, and not having one single person at the center of it all, but having multiple talents contributing to the brand. They took very calmly the huge but rightful outrage at Digital River. And the lineup and new projects they revealed (along with the expanded licensed products in development) showed a much more open mentality in how to handle the MOTU brand.

All this proved me one thing: we were right. We were right at voicing our criticisms. Yes, because of that I probably lost the opportunity to work on the brand again, but that's okay. Our message was received. We were right, because the moment new people stepped in, they realized what many fans were saying was true and there were issue to take care of, and a relationship to heal.

Of course, time will tell fans if they'll deliver what they promised. But I'm all for the fanbase giving them a chance.
They are already facing some big troubles with the fanbase with the Snake Men torso and the Power-Con exclusives. And while I understand some of the solutions are not good for everybody, I really appreciate the honesty they showed to fans with their answers, also understanding that sometime they have to deal with problems created before their arrival.
Make no mistake: 90% of the time, my problem was with the way things were communicated to the fans. If I see an effort – and I'm truly seeing it – to make things differently, that is a huge step forward.
I can finally sit back and relax, and watch what happens with MOTU, with a bit more hope and a smile.

PS:
I totally expect some idiot coming out and telling me I'm kissing their ass to try to get back to work on MOTU. First of all, I don't necessarily need to work on MOTU. I'd love to, and I would surely jump on any occasion that may present because my heart will always be with MOTU, but professionally, I'm very satisfied with my collaboration with Hasbro and the Transformers team. Those guys believed in me since day one, allowed me to learn and grow my skills as a toy designer and took me where I am now.

I'm also been at work on MOTU related products lately, so in a way, I'm still close to MOTU.
Also, if you believed I hate Mattel and I'm going to attack everything Mattel does, you're making a huge mistake. I've explained multiple times where the past issues came from. Due to the recent changes, I have no reason to believe these issues exist anymore. And since I'm part of the industry, I often have a better understanding than the average fan about the process. So please don't take my explanations of things as ass-kissing.
I will always be a big supporter of free speech and open criticisms, as these are meant to improve things, not destroy them.

PS2:
My commitment with The Power and The Honor Foundation hasn't changed. The collaboration with Dark Horse put us back on track and we devised new exiting plans for the immense collection of art we have. We'll continue to make all the possible effort to bring it all to the fans.

Originally appeared on Facebook as daily posts, I decided to collect this series of MOTU concepts on my blog as well, so you can see them all in one place at once.

With all the talks about a possible rebrand of the Classics line of figures for 2016, I wanted to explore what I would personally like to see.

I then created a series of B-Sheets portraying a line-up of figures, based on MOTUC molds, but reworked to offer new versions of the main characters, offering a jump-in point for new collectors. Released as a full year line, they would probably work mixed with other unreleased characters, appealing to the existing MOTUC collectors too.

Going by the name of the line "Signature Series", a name mentioned by the former MOTU brand manager echoing the latest DC Signature Series, I envisioned a line of figures that pay a big homage to the original creators of the line. Most of the figures I sketched are redesigned to reflect as much as possible the original B-Sheets that Mark Taylor created in 1981.
Which mean, they are not really my own designs, but they are what originally generated MOTU, as Mark was the creator of all the main characters.

Mind you, you may not recognize some of this stuff, or think some of the color scheme are pretty arbitrary. They are not. Everything is based on the original Mark's colored drawings I had the privilege to see a couple of years ago and that hopefully will be published in one of the future The Power and The Honor Foundation publications.

But why not go completely wild and just design figures that look exactly like the b-sheets, with different bodies etc.? Because I tried to design a complete and affordable line up of figures that could be released over the course of an entire year and remain affordable especially since this would be what rebranding means: bringing back main characters for people that missed out, but using most of the existing molds and changing line name and packaging

That also means, some figures have more new tooling, and cost more, some would have less, and cost less but help fitting the higher-tooling ones in the budget.
It’s how MOTUC worked since day one.

A few extra notes: rebranding the line means mostly the following things:
-Refreshing the “appearances" of the line, by changing mainly the line name and the packaging.
-Reusing as much as it’s possible existing tooling
-Bringing back the main characters.
You may not want that because you already have them, but that is not how the marketing works for those things. A “rebranded” line will supposedly try to catch up with collectors that didn’t buy this line in the first place, or that got into it too late and can’t find or afford the first releases anymore, all this while appealing to a portion of the existing customer that will buy again the main characters.

Now, mine is just an idea of many possible. I approach it with a very nostalgic and historical eye. I don’t think this is the best possible, it’s just what I’d love most.
Also, this idea was originally what I would have loved for the 30th anniversary line.

ON a lighter note, here are more full resolution version of my Instagram MOTU pics!
Click on them to see the full rez, much better then those on Instagram or Facebook!

Weather in Palermo is pretty warm, I just spent an awesome week with a good friend from Germany, and I have tons of Transformers work. So what is best time to get flu?
Oh well.
Since I got the iPhone, against all my friends's advises, I started taking some pics and quickly rework them with Instagram and now Pixlr. I think the challenge is to pick the best composition and take the best out of the limited tools. The limits of a phone app are not necessarily a bad thing. What cool stuff can be done with those? How to use them in clever ways, without just putting a silver on each pic? I don't know if I succeded at all in that, but surely I had lot of fun doing that.
The only I don't like is that both on Instagram and Facebook the pics are heavily shrunked down and compressed. So I thought to repost the full size files generated on the phone here (just click on them to enalrge)
Of course one of my favurite subjects are MOTUC figures. Here is a first bunch of them! Most are the first I did, and are pretty rough and uninteresting, but I think I started to get better with Castle Grayskull Man and Granamyr.
(Part 2)

Photo by Nathan Baertsch

Masters of the Universe Castle Grayskull is finally here.
While pics leaked a few days ago, the official unveiling happened yesterday at the New York Toy Fair. I'm stealing pics taken by my friend Nate Baertsch (I'm pretty sure he won't mind) to take a moment and talk about this beauty.
In the past few months, the Four Horsemen have confronted the daunting task of recreating what is undoubtely one of the best toys ever created. The original seminal playset, designed by Masters of the Universe originator Mark Taylor and originally sculpted by Mark himself along with his assistant, was and probably still is a masterpiece of toy design, enginereeing and play values. And yet, something to keep in mind for later in this post, even Mark's castle suffered from alteration due the packaging size. That, fortunately, didn't take much from a toy many of us ejoyed a lot as children.

That said, I would have been extremely intimidated myself if I had to take on such an important job. Would have been possible to create something that could compare to the original one and update it as a product released 30 years later? Would a new castle live up to fans' expectation, still very unsitisfied by the subpar 2002 release? And last but not least, would it live up to what all of us have been waiting since 2000? A Castle Grayskull by the Four Horsemen?

Mark Taylor's prototype

My answer is yes, it would, and it did.
Let me say it right now: that thig IS big. Not as big as promised, but even if this morning I said the opposite, being still cranky for another Digital River's mess up, it isn't small.
It's big. Definitely big. Who saw it in person can tell you. We'll get back to the size issue, but is that really all there is to talk about Castle Grasykull? I don't think so.

The proportions. They are perfect. Being one that has spent hours drawing and analyzyng Graykull, I can definitely tell the Four Horsemen nailed them. The silhoutte alone seems to have jumped out from the Alcala minicomics, and the overall look is the perfect blend of the prototype proportions with the original toy. The mouth is definitely deeper than the original, but not as deep in Mark's prototype. I look at it and think "that's Grayskull". It didn't happen with the 2002 toy, it didn't happen with the 2002 cartoon. But here I feel it as Grayskull in my heart, and I know it is right.
And look, some beloved elements are back: the ledge on the right tower, meant to be a platform for the figures in the original prototype, is back at his place. The decoration at the top of the dome, cut from the original to fit it in the box is back too. Whenever I drew Grayskull I has that element there, and now I'm glad this is getting a physical representation.

Photo by Nathan Baertsch

Let's now enter the castle. Yeah, I feel at home.
Thanks also to art and photos rescued and restored by The Power and The Honor Foundation, reference were now available to recreate most of Mark's original vision for the castle interiors. The Bat Jetpack is back, the skull motives at the top of the elevator, a much more faithful translation of Mark's jousting training device and added textures and sculpting everywhere. True, the walls appears to be pretty smooth and bare bones (!) right now, but it has already been addressed that they are not completed yet.

Yes, not everything is there. The torture table, the training puppet are still missing, but I'm not disappointed by that. I've already got more than before. And most of the elements from the carboard cutouts are stil present (I have the feeling the final piece will include all three, seeing how there is a mace and a gun laying around...) They are more based on Mark's prototype versions of the stickers, but they are there. And guess what. We had little chance to get that throne room guarian/robot. According to Mattel rules an articualted figure there woud have been another SKU, and so they couldn't do it (why Mattel can't change their own rules it's beyond me, but I digress..). Still the Four Horsemen knew the guardian had to be there and they sculpted a full, unarticulated piece! Our Throne room won't be missing him!
And look, there is a place to hang the swords. I said Swords, plural. We can hang both the Sword of Power and the Sword of Protection. This is a BIG plus for me. Not just for the extra accessory, but because this is great way to aknowledge She-Ra as part of the world of Masters of the Universe. Grayskull is now and forever He-Man's and She-Ra's home.
We now have two draperies and the dome is now a separate chamber, in which the Elder's orb can be stored on a new pedestal. Not exactly Filmation accurate, but how cool is to have that space finally separated and used in a good way? Oh, and the Dungeon! The most hardcore fans and loyal followers of the Foundation know what the closed Dungeon is a nod to: not only it makes more sense to have a contained space in the prison area, but it was also designed to slighlty remind of the mini "Dungeon" playset concept by Ted Mayer.
It goes without saying that all this has been beautifully rendered by Eric, CB, Jim, Shane, Sherri and Owen plus everybody that lended an hand there (I'm not kissing anyone ass here, you guys know I mean it).

Of course, not all the details are exactly like I wanted them to be, (I'm surely not going to put the Wind Raider there, so that hole bothers me) but I'm a pretty obsessive guy when it comes to Castle Grayskull and I have a very specific idea of each single detail in my mind. At the same time, I totally accept not  all of those details can be as I dreamed as they have been sculpted by another individual pretty obsessed about Grayskull like me. And of course there are difference as it should be. Do they look less cool? Absolutely not.
Speaking of which, I've read some comments of people being disappointed by the lack of Filmation accents. I can understand the preferences (I'm a big Filmation's Grayskull fan myself), but I can't understand the disappointment: for everyone who was paying attention, since day one we had been told what we were going to get and what the Four Horsemen sculpting preferences were.

Then, the size. As I said, yes, it's smaller, 1 or 2 inches shorter then the original model. Is it disappoiting, Probably yes. Totally unexpected? Personally, not. We're far from the days of the USS Flagg, or even Eternia playset. I want to quote what my friend said:

Reality of toy making is also considering packaging dimensions on large items like this, shipping costs from the factory to the warehouse, cost of materials... Sadly at the end if the day, to make it at the original size pushed the cost to a level I think most fans wouldn't be willing to pay. I feel they went with a hard decision and I feel the right decision, to shrink it slightly, it still works great with the intended figures, and still keep the bulk of all the cool accessories that fans expect.

Being in the industry myself, I completely understand that. Mattel is to blame not for miscalculating it at the beginning, not for cutting the budget later. I think we're getting what we're paying for. It was what promised that was not right for the price advertised. Also, I can only think what a nightmare for the Four Horsemen that must have been if the size change happened so late in the game. Trying to still fit all the pieces, maybe adjusting parts already sculpted or fabricated. It was not a light effort for them, and I'm sure they had to pull all sort of resources to get it done. When thinking about that, and seeing how almost all the focus is now on the size change (something I was guilty too this morning), it's a bit depressing unfortunately.
At the end of the day, if Mattel will offer to opt out of the preorders, that will be the right thing to do on their side. And I won't blame anybody that will take advantage of that.
But, all the above considered, is this issue a deal breaker for me? Can most of us honestly say we wouldn't have puchased it if we where told these were the actual measures instead?
I don't think so.
Yes, we're a cranky buch of collectors pretty tired of dealing with Mattycollector and Digital River, but we waited 12 years for this castle. The Four Horsemen Castle Grayskull. I look at the pics on my monitor and I must say that the positives totally overcome the negatives here.
Yes, it isn't the perfetct castle. Yes, it did suffer from some production restrictions. But remember, so did Mark Taylor's castle. Thirty years later was impossible to do better? Maybe, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the original castle for the last thirty years and surely won't stop me from enjoying this one for the next thirty.
By the way, Mark said: "looking good" ;)

End of the run for the San Diego week!
This is one of may favourite, originally designed by Ted Mayer and appeared in a handful of Filmation episodes, Octavia is one of thoe Horde weirdo we love so much!
With bendable tentacles (possibly not made of the same material used for Snout Spout's trunk..) and weapons from the show!

Now I can finally have dinner, sit back, relax and enjoy all the reveals tomorrow :)

First of all, thanks to all expressed their appreciation for my sketch.
I been reading a couple of  fair criticims and questions and I wanted to quickly address them.

The neck piece.
Somebody suggested that it could do like a two-necks torso like Two-Bad. It could, but then you'd be stuck to the 2 heads configuration. To make the Filmation version or any of the other combinations, we'd still need to have a separate connector for the neck.

Eamon suggested to do it more like the Mer-Man neck piece. Again, that would work, but only for the neck. We wouldn't be able to reuse that connector with any other part of the body. I guess, to an extent, maybe just one of the connectors could be shaped differently, and maybe be an extra, so not defeating the purpose of making all the vintage transformations possible.
Anyway, the problem with the current neck piece is to make it able to conncet to any other part of the body, that's why it looks that way.

HM.org users Slackrguy is wondering if this design would allow for the same number of combinations of the vintage one.
Yes it would, the number of pegs and ports is exactly the same, so all the combinations of the vintage one are possible. I worked precisely toward that goal and I wouldn't have settled for less than that ;)

Thanks for reading!