Thursday, August 30th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
After years of the toy collecting hobby being pretty much ignored by mainstream television, we suddenly have two shows that focus almost directly on it. But are they doing it the right way, or are they just helping to give the hobby a bad name to those who are not involved?
Honestly, I don’t really know the answer to that question. That’s why I’m bringing this discussion up with YOU!
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
By now I think it’s no secret that there has been a lot of discussion on the future of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line, which all started because of a post by Scott “ToyGuru” Neitlich stating that subscription sales were down, and therefore MOTUC may potentially be “on the chopping block.” This thread on He-Man.org sums up everything said by ToyGuru relating to this issue nicely in the first post.
Many of you have been contacting me via e-mail, PM, Twitter, Facebook, etc asking for my opinion on this situation, and/or asking me to relay messages to Scott. I feel I must apologize that I have stayed pretty quiet on this whole thing so far. I didn’t want to jump the gun. I wanted to get as much information as possible on this whole thing before I made any sort of comments. After talking with Toyguru on a recoding of the Roast Gooble Dinner podcast for a few hours this past weekend, I finally broke my silence and started posting updates and thoughts.
Monday, July 2nd, 2012 by Pixel Dan
San Diego Comic Con is very quickly approaching! With that, as always, comes a slew of limited addition, pricey, must-have-because-we-can’t-resist exclusive toys! So naturally, that’s the main focus of this week’s Round-Up.
That wraps it up for now! i’m sure there will be more SDCC tidbits as we get closer to the show. If so, I’ll post them here! Stay tuned!
Monday, June 25th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
Have you ever gone to a garage sale or a flea market hoping that you might just stumble upon something incredible to add to your collection? A find that could be considered almost robbery, because you got such an amazing deal on a piece that goes for way more money than you’d ever pay online? A find that fills your toy collector heart with much joy and pride?
The answer is yes. Yes you have. At least, I’m willing to bet you have. I have certainly been in that position many times, but never had the luck that I always dreamed of. That was until a week ago, when I stumbled upon the Rummage Sale from Heaven.
Monday, June 11th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
Welcome to The Roundup, a new feature here on Pixel-Dan.com that will allow me to give some quick shout-outs, plugs, and just mention something toy related that caught my attention that may not necessarily warrant a full write-up. Here’s what’s on tap for this week’s roundup:
That’s all I’ve got for this edition! Feel free to discuss below!
Monday, June 4th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
Update: Well, the plot thickens. ToyNewsI.com has just put up an article stating that they contacted Bandai asking about the rumors surrounding the demise of the line. Bandai states that they are still the master toy license holders for ThunderCats, and that they are currently focussing on rolling out product outside of the US.
That’s not a terrible amount of info, but at least we know Bandai hasn’t lost the license…yet. I’m still very interested to see how this all plays out, as I still find it highly unusual that Bandai hasn’t released or even shown us any new ThunderCats product since late last year.
Original Post: The future of the ThunderCats has been a hot topic as of late, and it seems to be really heating up.
The general consensus about the Bandai toy line has been that it’s in trouble. Ever since Toy Fair in February, where Bandai didn’t show off anything new for the brand, most collectors got the impression that the toy line was coming to an end.
Friday, May 11th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
The hot topic in the world of He-Man right now is the recent post by Scott “Toyguru” Neitlich stating that there will be a “dramatic” price increase on the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics line.
Fans are nervous about this bit of news, worrying that we may see prices as high as $30 and $40 per figure. Personally, I feel that Scott using the word “dramatic” was a poor choice here. I don’t imagine the prices will honestly be any higher than $22-$25 per figure.
Keep in mind that the price hike is not by any means new information. We’ve known this since around the beginning of the year, and even discussed it with Scott on an episode of the Roast Gooble Dinner podcast.
I don’t like the high prices of toys either. In fact, I’ve often commented on how I hate how much toys cost these days. But I absolutely understand that as the years go by, the cost of living goes up, the cost of raw materials goes up, and the cost of products we purchase go up. We’ve honestly been lucky the prices have stayed the same since 2008 until now.
I understand there are quality control circumstances with this line that there is no excuse for. But in the grand scheme of things, I understand the price increase. And as long as it stays at the $22-$25 price point, I’m still good to buy.
So my question to all of you is this: what’s your limit? We all collect for different reasons. For me, MOTU is my first love when it comes to toys, and I would drop everything else I collect before I drop MOTU. But that’s not the same for everyone. So, at what point do you give up on buying MOTUC? What price is “too high?” Discuss!
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
Thanks to a plug by my friend Poe Ghostal, I found this incredibly cool site that I felt I also needed to share. PocketPowerToys.com is a site dedicated completely to the Sega Pocket Power toyline that was released by Tyco in the late 80’s /early 90’s.
This is one of those toy lines that I had mostly forgotten all about, but always remember when I accidentally stumble upon pictures of the Thunder Blade Helicopter or the infamous Glo-Bones.
I remember always wanting many of these as a kid. Especially that Glo-Bones. Unfortunately, I never had him or most of the toys in this unique toy line. However, it turns out that I did have one, and I never even knew it was part of this line. At least, I didn’t remember that it was part of this line.
Saturday, April 28th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
Mattel has finally revealed their 2012 San Diego Comic Con exclusives. Fans have been chomping at the bit for quite some time, speculating on what we may be seeing.
The goofy looking trio you see above is the Masters of the Universe Classics exclusive known as Vykron. At least, the barbarian guy is Vyrkon. I’m unsure yet if the other two have been given official names. But in a nutshell, it’s one figure that includes three outfits: a barbarian, a military man, and a space man.
For those in the know, you will immediately recognize what this is. But it seems that there are a lot of fans and collectors out there that are completely thrown off by this exclusive. Many seem to not know what these odd looking figures represent.
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
The debate over the reversed forearms on the upcoming MOTU Classics Stinkor has been a very hot topic among fans over the past week. This thread on He-Man.org is a prime example of how fans are reacting.
Last week I posted a comment directly from Mattel where they stated that the arms were reversed on purpose. Mattel says this was a decision from the in-house design team in an effort to make Stinkor “pop” and differentiate him from other figures who utilize the finned forearms.
Mattel has stuck by this statement, as many questioned them on the MattyCollector.com forums. After similar mistakes happened with reversed parts on figures like Roboto and King Hsss, its understandable why fans may be having a hard time accepting Mattel’s statement as truth.
Yesterday, the Four Horsemen chimed in via their Twitter account, stating:
“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.”
In my opinion, this statement from the Four Horsemen does not prove that Mattel is outright lying about their decision like many fans are claiming. I feel that all this proves is that The Four Horsemen did not intend Stinkor’s forearms to look that way. We already knew this, considering we saw the original prototype at Power-Con, and the forearms were correct.
Now, I am not at all defending Mattel’s decision on this, so don’t get me wrong. I agree that it seems incredibly odd to swap parts for the sake of swapping them, especially when it throws off the anatomy. I’m just saying that the Horsemen have only stated that they also don’t know why Mattel made the decision to swap them, if they did indeed purposely do so.
The debate continues to heat up, so it’ll be interesting to see where it goes. What do you think? Was this a QC issue? Or do you believe this was a decision by Mattel design, albeit an odd one?
