MOTUC Stinkor’s Forearms Reversed cont’d
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?
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Mistake or not; it doesn't ruin the figure for me … I'M a bit sick of the Constant conspiracy theories and constant critiCism of every single thing Mattel do … Digital river; yes I have beef with them, but it's a wonder Mattel sell these figure in the first place based on how much criticism flys around, rightly or wrongly …
I really Can see both it being a mistake and it also having been a decision made at the last minute. However, my money right now is on the arms being a mistake and that it Just Hapoens to be a mistake that mattel is spinning into a positive.
Either way it isn't that hard to fix the problem.
The worst part about swapping the arms yourself is that you have to repaint them, since they have a white stripe going down the outside.
And yeah, regardless if it was done on purpose or was a mistake, the fact is that they are still reversed.
Actually it would be hard to fix the problem. The figure comes out in a couple of weeks. Most, if not all by now, of the figures are ready to be sold. So…they couldn't just fix the forearms without delaying Stinkor for several months.
mistake or not; it doesn't ruin the figure for me … i'm a bit sick of the constant conspiracy theories and constant criticism of every single thing mattel do … digital river; yes i have beef with them, but it's a wonder mattel sell as many figures as they do based on the amount of criticism that flys around, rightly or wrongly …
To me I think its not a big deal, but I think the story of it being planned sounds weak, i think someone on the design team is covering their backside.
Though we did see the test shot of stinkor on ebay and it was correct, so who really knows.
Still he only looks goofy in a couple poses, its no where as odd looking as the drums on the sorceresses back lol
Yeah, the fact that we saw test shots with the correct forearms does seem to play in the favor of it being Mattel's decision. Almost as if they got the test shot and then said "Let's switch those forearms."
That's nothing more than speculation, of course. And it's still a weird decision. We'll probably never know one way or the other…
argh, how do i delete my original post?! … it's too messy so i re-posted above, with better grammar!
…
I took care of it for you.
thanks guy!
It could have been a decision by the internal design team, though whenever fans are upset with any other design decisions they always emphasize how the Horsemen make all the design decisions, so…yeah.
Yep. You're exactly right. There are so many layers to this one that I totally understand why it's getting so much attention.
i just get tired of the constant epic-threads we see appear on the .org … ''petition for this'' … ''petition for that'' … does this arm chnage ruin stinkor as a figure? no! … it just smacks of toys out of the pram sometimes, pun intended!
…
Where's the "like" button?
I actually don't go to the Org boards because of things like this. It happens on the Matty boards, too, but no so much.
Also, I can't join the Org forums because I don't have a "proper" email, which is really non-existent anymore, as internet providers seldom provide these days. Anyway, that's a whole other thing. I like their stories, etc., but I ignore the boards. No offense to anyone, that's just how it is.
I think Mattel is telling the truth on this one. Granted, that makes it almost worse that they would arbitrarily make a change to the Horsmen's sculpt.
exactly! … why would scott openly try and oust the 4h?? … it's not in his nature, and well – it wouldn't happen anyway …
Well good news on another note, Mirror Master has shown up on ebay with 2 open hands
See sometimes the design team gets it right lol
"We want to make Stinkor unique by reversing his forearms!"
But wouldn't that just make him like everybody else?
You know, it seems like no matter how many times they try to make good with the fans, Mattel takes two steps back and put their feet in their mouth with situations like this. While I see their logic, shouldn't this have been a decision they made BEFORE showing the figure off at Power Con? Everyone's figures are like this so its not a screw up but it obviously was a decision that is completely backfiring on them now with the fandom.
Well considering it was my tweet that asked them about the issue. Thank You! But reading all the"excuses" by Scott and Mattel on the issue. If they were not happy with the arms that The Four Horsemen ha resculpt to add the fur texture to it! Why didn't they allow them to make the arms like Battle Ground Evil-Lyn's like Scott is claiming? Which he says that it's the same thing? Sadly it's not! Stinkor was already unique by having the 200x styled head and the extra attachments to his armor. So does that mean now what ever The Four Horsemen sculpt. Scott and Terry can go ahead and just say that they want it this way And End of Story? Sorry, The Horsemen scupt the figures. If there are any changes. They should be consulted before hand! You can believe Scott's answer to the issue, but many can see that it was nothing but damage control!
I love Stinkor….he was my absolute favorite figure growing up, I still plan on getting 3 extra figures of him, so I'll hold my comments until I have him in hand, Dan, if any way you could do a follow-up video showing oFF this close up?
I got no time for following the debate, but I did take the effort to get all the actual information there was and in my opinion there are only two logical possibilities here: Either Mattel is Out-Right lying to us or their in-house designers are so incredibly bad at their job that they actually believe "left = right"! We've seen great Ghostbusters-figures designed by Mattel's in-house designers – I can't imagine they actually did this on purpose…
Just my view on the matter…
edDy
PS: I don't know why the letters all are capital ones while typing them, it's not caps-lock and I did diferentiate while typing! No idea how it'll look once I've posted these lines… >_>
I'm worried that we may see the end of the line this year because Matty may decide to cancel it over all thenegative feedback when they may believe they were trying to do something special for the fans. Sure it's different but I bet only one of us here actually has Stinkor in hand. I'm not saying we 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.
Mattel has always been upfront about mistakes. If they are claiming this was on purpose I am sure that is the case.
Also, at this point, if you think this would cause the end of the line you are fooling yourselves. Everyone is just going to complain for a few weeks but will keep throwing down the cash every single month until the line ends. every year people moan and groan but are right there the next month to get their figure. as long as the figures make the money, which Scott has said many times they are well over the minimum, there is no end in sight for MOTUC.
I think that they are definitely switched, but it also doesn't really bother me, as, at least in this one case, it doesn't seem that noticeable.
I'm a guy who does tend to obsess over little things, but, at least in the pictures I've seen, this doesn't seem as bad as the reversed shoulders. I can live with it.
So, backtracking or not (probably), I don't think I really care.
Stinkor is a character that I still have a strong memory of getting and opening in the backseat of the car to my parents' horror. I'll be happy to add him to the collection, switched forearms or no. I just don't think it's a deal breaker (unlike the unsightly drums on Sorceress, who I ended up completely passing on because of them).
Deliberate or not, to me it feels odd having the forearms the way they do right now.
Like Dan, i also don't think that mattel is lying on this issue, but making such a drastic decision shows a big lack of respect for all the fans that spend their hard-earned money on this toyline.
imo We, as consumers had the right to be heard on this matter, like we did on swiftwind. Scott is always saying that they listen to fans, and that our opinion is to be counted, but on this one i guess not.
I would like to see if mattel didn't have subscibers, if they would actually be taking this risk, knowing that many of us would skip the figure due to this "error".
Stinky isn't on the main sale page anymore at MATTY. wonder whats up?
He's still showing up for me.
As I've said before, it only frustrates me because of the coincidence that Stinkor's got the ONLY left to right specific forearm deco in the line that makes a simple at-home swap nearly impossible.
Intentional or not, that's like hitting the lottery in terms of having exactly the wrong figure with swapped parts. If it's been done on purpose…it's certainly a weird choice since even though I don't think it looks bad, i doubt it made it look any better either. If it's an accident, he still looks cool and hopefully it won't bug me too much just…knowing something's not exactly right. I just can't believe that the swapped part thus far have happened on figures that are the most difficult to fix. Roboto and Hsss torsos are risky to pop open compared to others.
For those planning on swapping forearms and painting, well…good luck with that frustrating ordeal. I've considered it, just in case my OCD kicks in, but painting in an area that may be rubbed off my joint movement is maddening in addition to trying to get a nice coat of white paint on black plastic. Unless the arms are cast in white and painted black…which is slightly less enraging to deal with.
Oh well. I plan on enjoying the heck out of him since he looks great. Hopefully we can all take a deep breath of his horrible fumes and become so disorinted that all of his parts looks right! Or wrong. Whichever is more consistent in our collective stink-infused haze.*
*I do not recomment painting Stinkor while in Stink-infused haze.
Straight up QC issue. I bet Mattel's peeps sat down and discussed ways to put a positive spin on it. Not a bad official statement, but like numbers, products don't lie, people do, hehe.
With that said, like Hsss I'll buy Stinkor too.
the thing is… the arm stripes would be painted before the figure is assembled right? if that's true, then it seems more likely that is was a conscious design choice rather than making the mistake of painting the stripe upside down, the accidentally fixing it by switching the forearms by mistake.
then again, they might have only made the mistake of painting the stripes upside down… and did the switching to cover that mistake.
anyways, if this is all in caps, i'm sorry, but for some reason *all* of it is showing up as in caps, even though my caps lock is off and text is working normally everywhere else.
Here is the most recent Tweet from The Four Horsemen on the matter: "The bottom line is that this is Mattel's property. Not ours. If they decide that it's best to alter something like that after we've finished it, they have every right to do so. They're the ones assuming all of the financial responsibility & risk. "
Although I would like to see mistakes like this disappear, it won't keep me from enjoying this figure. I Think Mattel needs to get everyone on the same page; From the Development stage to finished product. Also, If your going to make a statement about a figure you better make sure everyone involved has the same statement. I think they got caught on this one. Regardless, I will still enjoy this figure.
If you believe that Mattel design did this on purpose, I have some water front propert to sell you in the Florida marsh-lands
I'm "e3" the person who started the Stinkor thread on the Matty Forums, so trust me I'm a big fan of ole Stinky!
For me this fig is a bit of a let down…not so much because of this forearm issue, but I don't love the furry body. THe original was my fav fig as a kid, and this Classics version just looks too much like a different fig. Stinkor is a straight Mer-man repaint, how do you screw that up??? If it aint broke dont fix it, right?? I get the furry body on one hand, but on the other I don't, because that's not the way the original fig was. It's just too drastic of a change for me.
I'll still cherry-pick one if I can, but my excitement is a bit lessened, and the forearm issue doesn't help things. Just a little disapointed after such excitement to finally see the fig.
…just my opinion, but I think Matty can't afford to admit another mistake so soon after making their public statement about "how we're improving QC". Makes no logical sense to swap them, it adds nothing to the look of the fig. I'm not buying Scott's answer; and why should we, he's been flaky on giving us info from the start. I think we're entering a stage of them telling us what we want to hear, and not necessarily the truth. I don't think they'll admit to another mistake the rest of the line.
I speculated a while back that the line wouldn't see the light of 2015, though I hope I'm dead wrong…. but this certainly doesn't help.
See, I would hate for it to just be a straight up repaint of Merman. MOTUC shouldn't be about being a straight transition from vintage to Classics, it should be about the figures being the best representation of the character. Giving him the furry Beast-Man body makes sense as well as the Millennium inspired accessories.
That's your opinion, but I'm a purist I guess; I would prefer the figs to be as close as possible to the originals. They could always do variations with a new fig if they wanted to make these types of changes. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the fig, just not as stoked as I thought I would be after seeing it. Like I said, I get the furry body, just after seeing it I think I'd of preferred a straight repaint like the "Classic" fig…which is I guess what I was expecting originally. We'll see; once it's in hand, maybe I'll change my tune. But at the same time, why not make these types of changes to other figs then? Why not give Man at Arms armor looking skin rather than the smooth skin, when we know he's wearing green armor, and doesn't have green skin, or wearing green spandex. Or with Webstor, they could have given him parts that are not just smooth/standard. It's just that it isn't consistant. Some figs are changed, and some are straight articulated remakes of the originals.
I do believe Mattel that it was on purpose this time, and honestly the figure does look fine. In fact, it wasn't even noticeable. And if it was a QC issue, with the 80+ figures we have had, only a handful have had serious issues for their whole run, meaning that quality overall is in our favor.
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