How can Konami get me back?

Obvious answer is: Bring Back Hideo Kojima... But aside Bringing Back Hideo, how can they?

They only have 2 things that they could make in order to bring me back:

Current Generation Remakes of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

Konami pretty much has the story, the engine to make the game. All they need to do is put those elements together. If they were to play it smart they could always get away with doing more with both of those games...

Like say: Make the remake based on the MSX Version as the real story events, then have a... I hate myself for saying this: DLC Mission, which would be a "VR Mission" for Raiden loosely based on the NES Port of MG.

Then MG2SS has the MSX game made as the main game and Snake's Revenge being Raiden's VR Mission.

Heck, the English version could have Richard Doyle doing the voice of Big Boss for the normal game and the Raiden VR Mission have Queefer Sutherland as Big Boss, with Rose making a huge emphasis of the popularity of Queefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. Seeing that Raiden would be doing VR Training around the time that 24 was a thing.

I mean what else they can do Raiden may Cryonetta 2?

In the mean time I'm counting the hours until the Phantom Pain... Until then I'm Queefer Sutherland pretending to be David Hayter.

August is pretty much over and still no Matty Package...

Between Erika induced power outages and Matty's August Package not arriving, I've got a bit of a MOTUC itch...
3 out of 4 items are things that I'm super excited about... the 4th is just BS...

Wes Craven is dead. The man behind the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Scream and many other movies has passed away. It's a shame that a man whose career gave many of us a lot of nightmares is no longer with us. Best wishes to his family.

Apparently, Bill Murray has no dick. He's basically the new Walter Peck... Yup, Bill Murray it's at a brand new low... Lower than Garfield 2.

Konami is calling MGSVTPP their GOTY... So, Congratulations to Hideo Kojima and I can't wait to play the Final Metal Gear game... Buh Bye, Konami!!

The Filmation Subline is a waste of effort.

I have already explained my disdain towards the underdetailed look of the sub-line and how it fails as a new line and as a 2.0 refresher for Classics.
There is a different aspect that I didn't put too much thought into. Longevity.

The line is purely variants...  Waves 1, 2, 3, and parts of 4... (Without entering into the She-Ra toon.)
Sorceress and Randor were added to the line BECAUSE of the Cartoon. We wouldn't get all the figures from those waves because of variants not being part of Filmation.

He-Man (coming)
Skeletor (coming)
MAA
Beastman (coming)
Merman
Stratos
Teela
Zodac

Evil Lyn (coming)
Faker
MEF
Ram Man
Trap Jaw (coming)
Tri-Klops

Buzz-Off
Clawful (coming)
Fisto
Jitsu
Kobra Khan
Mekaneck
Orko
Adam
Webstor
Whiplash

Mossman
Roboto
Spikor
Sy-Klone
Two-Bad

Randor
Sorceress

31 figures total. 25 Missing. That's not counting She-Ra figures or MOTU Figures that appeared on She-Ra. it's not a viable line in the long run. if they're going with the 7 figures a year approach they have roughly 4 years. that is adding one more "chase slot" to round up the figures to 8. Or 3 years if we up the slots to 13 after the first year. That's not counting variants of cartoon characters like Marlena, Evil Seed, Marzo, etc.
You can surely pad out the line, but here's the big question: How many people will ride this sub-line to the point that they make Icer, Fang Man, Nepthu or Plundor on this less detailed style? Not only that but there are some fools, yes, I'm calling them fools, because I'm trying to be nice; who claim they want ALL THE CHARACTERS that showed up on Filmation to be made on the Filmation sub-line. That Cool Fang Man that we got in Classics? Remove the rivets on his bracers, ax the detail on his belt, shirt and arms! They are hipster crap added by the 4H... Even Metallic accents are too much for some of these people. Wanting a Dylamug that can stand on its own while keeping most of his Filmation shape is bad, because Details are evil. Trying to make a Dylamug stand on his own with 100% Cel Accurate look will be nearly impossible.

Even ML MODOK had to get a stand.

Those Spindly legs Holding a somewhat heavy Torso. Not to mention that he's going to end up somewhat rounder in shape in order for the spinning dials to work for his face... (His name is DIAL A MUG)

Making the Transition from 2D to 3D requires some changes if we'd like to have a (dis)playable Dylamug.

Going "100% Cel accurate" (which none of the Filmation Sub-Line figures are)

This Dylamug would require some sort of Clear Stand (as seen with Orko, Gorpo or the Hoverbots) Otherwise he'd be like Marvel Legends MODOK without the Exhaust fumes stand.

The Clear stand makes it inaccurate to the source Material.

Keeping the same shape of the legs and making them slightly thicker in order to sustain the weight of the figure is not a horrible thing. The Horsemen adding a bit of detailing to the panels on him, like rivets to where they should be... or even *gasp!* the REAL HORDE EMBLEM!!
So if we add ALL THOSE EXTRA CHARACTERS to be redone, the list grows exponentially.
While the line can support the few A-List folks (basically waves 1-2 with a few wave 3-4 stragglers) can it support all of them? These figures will be great for casuals who'd like He-Man, Skeletor, Evil Lyn, Teela, MAA and Beastman tops. Many of these folks will not stick for Spikor, Hose Nose, etc.

Now, what could they have done instead?
How about an all encompassing sub-line that does homages to the incarnations of MOTU Characters in other media. I'd call it: Masters of the Universe: Legacy
It would take the looks of the characters from other media, Cartoon, Comics, Movie, Videogames, etc. and put them on the same scale (and detail) as Classics. It's not confined to a single media and it allows for a wider pool of characters to be used. It would have allowed Mattel to have their 2.0 cake and to eat it a s a new line. (Different card art as well... Original Red and Blue Starry Explosion) not to mention that they could pull off some "Fixes" through this theoretical line. Like Say New Adventures Skeletor with a sculpted Torso, but with the two cartoon-inspired head (white eyes and red eyes) switch heads with the normal MOTUC version for a more Toy NA Skeletor. Boom! Or have a 200X Faker and a Newspaper King Hiss!

Some people are underestimating the lack of compatibility with Classics as a factor against the Filmation line... This October they might get an unpleasant surprise... The Filmation sub-line: as a Limited Sub-Line it could work, but in the long run, it will fail. Casuals will never pick up the slack during sub drives. If the Hardcore base is divided, the line will fail in the end.

Farkle may not be Human...

It's been a while since I've made a Girl Meets World Rant... You know Farkle, right? Son of Minkus...

Well, Farkle's mother has been revealed...

Yes, Kristanna Loken is making a comeback as Farkle's mom...

Farkle's mom is the Terminatrix... Farkle's dad is Minkus... and he may be a bit like Donatello...

But I guess I have to wait until 9/11 to find out the truth behind Farkle... I KINDA want him to NOT BE HUMAN, but he's going to be human...

All jokes aside, isn't it peculiar that Farkle's parents have a beef with Cory?
Minkus, well, it's obvious what the beef is.  The video above gives us a hint of the beef that Farkle's mom has with Cory... question is HOW DID THOSE TWO GOT TOGETHER!?

Now I have to wonder how long until they bring back all of Shawn's exes... I'm thinking of one in particular...

But this is creeping into background character territory.

Top 5 things that I find annoying in GTA V... The Story Mode.

Ground Zeroes left me wanting to replay something else... I decided to replay GTAV just to see the other endings on my TV without going to Youtube... While I started playing, I noticed something...

There are a few annoying things in the game...
I've decided to ramble about my TOP 5 MOST ANNOYING THINGS IN GTA V: On Story Mode.
I HATE HATE HATE Online Mode.

#5:
Cougars. It's fun when you see the random event of Cougars attacking other non-playable characters. What is not fun is being in the middle of the wild for mission reasons or exploring and your vehicle breaks down. Out of the blue... BAM! You died! It's worse when you're on your way to a mission, or straight after.

#4:
Tonya's Towing Missions.
It's not that they're hard. It's that they are dull, boring and Tonya can be so annoying. Well, her conversations tend to annoy me.

#3:
Trevor Phillips.
I know, Blasphemy. Trevor's character has MANY, MANY flaws and is a deep character... at the same time he can feel shallow. While his exploits are amazing and funny at times. (The VA's delivery helps out a lot.) Trevor's just a ball of berserker rage and that can feel a bit dull and boring. (Then again, I can relate more with Michael, so that can kind of explain my apprehension towards Trevor.)

#2:
Epsilon Missions...
Well, one in particular... I mean 2:
Bearing the Truth, the one where you have to wear the Epsilon Robes for 10 in-game days without changing characters.
Exercising the Truth, the one where you have to run 5 miles in the desert while wearing the Epsilon Robes... Add Cougar issues to the mix... and the Annoying levels increase... KIFFLOM!

#1:
UN, DOS, TRES CUATRO! Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep!!

East Los FM,s most infamous song: El Sonidito. It makes riding or stealing a cab a HUGE PAIN in the ass. Seriously, 8/10 times you steal a cab and Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,  beep, beep, beep, beep!! Sure, I can CHANGE the station, but if I'm being hunted by the cops or Merriwether... Or the Epislon folks after ripping them off, the last thing I need is this earworm... This ANNOYING EARWORM. Can't get this song of my head... Found myself tapping my pen to the rhythm of the songs beat earlier today...

Mattel has Made CAW Toys... Methinks it's time for a CAM...

CAW: Create a Wrestler... A Staple of WWE Games ever since the days of

Well, Smackdown games! (Shut your Mouth and Here Comes the Pain are my favorites!)

Now take that Concept and expand it to a Toyline that MATTEL FULLY OWNS...
Yes... CREATE A MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!!! You're Welcome...

I know this would require a brand new Customizable Buck, but they have experience with the CaW and MODULOK/MULTIBOT to figure out a MODULAR MOTUC STYLED BUCK!
There should be a few changes (interchangeable Loincloths) but if they keep the pegs on the shoulder to biceps, hands and boots Universal, then we could customize the figures even further.

Here's a crude example:
Eternian Villager 1:

The buck is a very basic buck with interchangeable arms and legs.
If you notice, the weird Blue Legs that match with nothing on the figure, then you must guess that you may need to buy OTHER Figures from the proposed line-up to have more options. Also, it's a nice way to sneak in Guy in Yellow Tug of war dude...

My second character idea is a Gar Bandit figure...
As you can see it brings SOME KELDOR Parts to the Mix and Some 200X Skeletor too!

You get Original Generics... and pieces to either make new versions of past figures, or spice up your current MOTUC figures. This could also help to make more generic snakemen with create a reptilian character or more Generic Hordesmen that are not troopers.

a 200X mekaneck is not in the pipeline, well how about a blue cyborg body that if one puts the MOTUC Mekaneck head and armor on him makes up for a somewhat convincing 200X mekaneck?
The Create a Master would placate some fan desires not to mention incite fans to create their own characters. I know that for years fans have wanted something like this and seeing it on WWE and not MOTU is a bit annoying...

Taking Offense by Dare and other Loose Ends...

Yes, it's a reference to THAT Post by Neitlich. It's been a while I've put Neitlich through the wringer and Phoenix Wright'd the Hell out of his posts... Last time I did I found myself agreeing with him... Once again, it's not Personal, but Business. This post by him was rant-worthy, so I shall rant!

Hey! 

Okay. So I’ve been “relatively” quite the last few months, and I can confess that has been deliberate. I didn’t want to speak up, especially during the sub sell in period as to not throw off any efforts from the new team or skew any potential sales for them. I really do wish the new team all the best in the world for long and fulfilling collector line!

Now that 2016 sub sales have closed, I had a few “closing thoughts” on the brand I wanted to share, mostly jut to clear the air and ensure the new team is set up for success to continue brining you amazing MOTU collector figures for years if not decades to come. So what follows may be a little rambling, but I wanted to close off some loose ends that have been dangling since my resignation to help clear the air and ensure the new team is in no way to “blame” for things I have set up *(and vica versa if you will). So without further adieu, some closing thoughts on MOTUC as I headed into the sunset. 

 Basically, Scott couldn't keep it in... Some people would even say that he was starving for attention... There was a video of him being a Cashier at the Jakks Pacific Booth. Sadly, I can't find it anymore. But here's the video of the 2015 Jakks Panel... Others may believe he IS being mature and taking the high road... BUUUUUUUUUT! The whole I didn't want to speak up during the sub sell in period reeks of "He gonna throw the new team under the bus!"

He says he's going to filter what's "Scott's Fault" vs "New Team's Fault"... Like the great Samuel L. Jackson said:

Dare
Okay. Let me clear the air on this guy and how/why he wound up in the line. So wayyyyyyyyy back in 2013 when the 2015 line was planned Dare was not in the line. As prices crept up and character selection dwindled it became clear we needed to refocus the line to ensure the “vintage line and A list characters” were complete before the price point hit $30.00 or more. 

But, SOMEBODY AT MATTEL was trying too hard to find a way to push him... Hence the "2011 planned but 2013 Released" H-R:SOHM King He-Man. If there were "No Plans for Dare" why the push for a He-Ro: Son of He-Man with the Mini-Comics, Logo and King He-Man? Not to mention The UNO on 2014...

So.
The line was planned out and indeed Dare was not in it. Hence the statement I made only once on the He-Man.org boards stating directly that Dare would not be in the 2015 line. (this is the same quote where I misspelled Crimson Rose, using a code name fro Ever After High that was stuck in my head!). This is a PERFECT example of how I have always said “things change all the time!” and this is a textbook example. 

Here we go... Can you smell it? As I stated before: The plan to include Dare WAS IN THE WORKS all the way to 2011, seeing that "it takes 2 years to prepare a line" and all that. He may have not BEEN originally for 2015, but Scotty was trying to Groom us into accepting Dare... Uh, bad choice of words here... If someone brings up a comment I made years ago mentioning that TG kinda looks like Jared Fogle, then it becomes a lot creepier.

Back in 2013 when this statement was made, Dare was not in the line. The December figure was 200X Evil Seed. The revised plan for 2014-2015 that was drafted in 2013 was to complete: 
A: All vintage MOTUC characters including variants (which brings up the additional point that if fans did not want Buzz Saw Hordak, due to him being too similar in “look” - back in 2013 was the time to speak up and ask for him to NOT be on the roadmap. Asking in 2014 or even 2015 for him to be removed from the promised complete roadmap was too late. 
B: All original POP figures from the vintage line. We knew that if we tackled variants for POP as well, it would be too many slots to offer in 2014 and 2015 because we also wanted to include in the wrap up road map-
C: A list characters from other media. This included Filmation. 200X, comics, books, and (dah dah dah...) concept eras like SOHM. 

Take it away, Heath Ledger's ghost!


Hmmm... Evil Seed was the Final Slot... Interesting! Then CHANGE!!!

• Yeah, Mattel shoved 2 UNNECESSARY Hordak variants down our throats, with little or no change. PEOPLE WERE COMPLAINING ABOUT BS HORDAK BY THE TIME MATTEL SHOVED SPIRIT OF HORDAK ON US!! BS Hordak could have EASILY been an Extra Armor tossed in with another figure, or they could have EASILY combined BS Hordak with Filmation Hordak. and not forcing TWO MORE HORDAK VARIANTS.
  Hell! People were begging for Flying Fists he-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor, who are Different enough from the Original Flavor of He-Man and Skeletor to come in Armor Paks...
• Which Mattel had to pull a mini-sub out of their asses to complete... WITHOUT counting Variants of POP...
• See!? Here's the Loophole that Neitlich was creating since 2011. Also, in what Universe Plundor and Nepthu ARE A-List!? Also, We're Not adding Dare, but we totally can!

So with that criteria set up, adding characters like Lizard Man and Evil Seed (200X) made perfect sense to include in the revised roadmap. BUT….as I noted above, things CHANGE all the time in the toy industry. When the POP add on sub in 2014 sold very well, we got the last min greenlight to add a 200X mini sub in 2015. 

thanks Jack Black, I could have done without the MotherLover part... but yes you are right. Something sounds off here. Didn't the POP Sub UNDERPERFORM and Scott had to plead for it to go through?  Fighting Urge to Scream HOLD IT!!

Evil Seed was then moved from the Dec 2015 slot to a leading slot in the add on 200X sub. As arguably the most demanded of all 200X characters, it was felt very strongly across the team that he should be included in the 200X sub to help sell it in (this was before the new upper management came in and clearly changed things where now full year’s roll out are being shown, which BTW I am very jealous I never had this tactic available to me. It is definitely ironic that new upper management came in a week before I resigned, so I never had the opportunity to work within there new rules, a situation the new team is blessed to be currently in!)

Evil Seed is indeed one of the most demanded 200X Figures, it made sense to have him there...
The rest I take with a grain of salt. The secrecy thing seemed more like a Scott thing, more than anything. He always had this vibe to him that he tried to keep some sort of mystique... which would help his "Guru" persona. Otherwise, he'd kept quiet and not commented on this...

Okay, I’m off topic. Back to Dec 2015. 

So with Evil Seed 200X moving from Dec 2015 slot to a lead spot in the 200X sub *(to help sell that sub when we were working under the direction of the then “current” older management that did not allow figures that had not been approved to be shown to the public) it left the Dec mainline sub slot open. So when I made that statement in 2013 about Dare not being in the mainline, it was true. He was not in it at the time. But things changed…

And with ALL THE HUNDREDS OF CHARACTERS LEFT, SOMEHOW DARE Rose to the top?
Let's see if there are some of the choices.

We reviewed quite a few candidates for the Dec slot including Masque, Miro, Mara, Critia and others. In the end, upper management felt very strongly that Masque and Darius should NOT be in this slot. They both lost a fan vote, fans had the chance to vote them into the line and did not. Therefore the “losers” of the fan polls were immediately taken off the table by upper management for the Dec slot. They asked for a few options and one of those we presented was Dare, son of He-Man. 

Not choosing any of the fan vote Losers was BS. That was a Fan-Vote that forced A or B and not BOTH seeing that many wanted BOTH Choices, but were FORCED to pick one. Not to mention that these polls were loaded in order to have a massive landslide victory... Only issue was that fans saw through this ruse and made the Underdog win TWICE! This kinda helps the theory that Mara and Crita were NOT INTENDED TO BE IN THE LINE AT ALL...
Funny How DARE Rises to the top with all the characters we have available... any of the missing NA Roster, Filmation key characters, 200X Key characters, Songster, etc.

There are multiple reasons Dare rose to the top as the replacement candidate once 200X Evil Seed moved to the add on sub. At the time, it was thought Dec 2015 would be the end of the Classic line in name. Having the line start with He-Man and end with his son felt very bookmarky. Additionally, we wanted to use 2014-2015 (as noted above) to wrap up the vintage line and A-list characters from other media. Since we had already done a few characters from the “Son of He-Man” era (King He-Man, Laser-Lot, Unnamed One etc…) this era was firmly established. Therefore, it made a ton of sense to do the “A list” characters from “son of He-Man” era, namely the actual son, Dare AKA He-Ro II. 

Technically, the line started with King Grayskull: the ancestor of He-Man, then he was "Outside the main line" so Dare could have been an "Outside the Line" extra... Bonus points if he had been a 2016 SDCC Item. (Line started with an Ancestor of He-Man at SDCC, it ended with a Descendant of He-Man at SDCC).

It made a ton of sense to do Dare!? the HRSOHM era being Established!?

No, Neitlich! YOU! forced it to us in 2011(planning stage for 2013) when you shoved "King He-Man" to the line-up. YOU Took the Geoff Johns Vanity Project and Shoved YOUR OWN VANITY PROJECT into this "era" to Cement it along other characters. This concept FAILED TWICE TO BECOME AN ACTUAL TOYLINE/TOON... Before you tried to shove it down our throats like a misused Turkey Caller. But Leaving your mark on the property and all that...
(To be fair: The First attempt at a SON OF HE-MAN was canned and elements were used on the New Adventures of He-Man era, but the SON OF HE-MAN part was not used.)

And if we were going to release him, personally I wanted to make sure he delivered value since the visuals we had access to noted his design was an early visual that eventually became “New Adventures He-Man”. This was why in the toy release (and in the upcoming mini comics issue 7 and 8) Dare is shown in his Filmation vest as well. I had hoped his belt for the filmation armor could have been included as well, letting fans use the Vykron buck mixed with Dare parts to create the Filmation version as a toy. Maybe that belt can be released one day. But either way, this “Dare” release was designed ideally to include all the “parts” you might need to create either Dare figure (in addition to using the Vikron buck from SDCC a few years back. 

So Redundant Dare was Redundant... Then here's a novel concept. Instead of having shown us the NA Ginger He-Man Repaint as our He-Ro II for over a year, why not start with the Lou Scheimer pitch look FROM THE START!?

I know it's amazing...

Use the Vykron Buck!? Did Neitlich forget about Vykron: Victim of Blasticgate?

Okay, so I hope that clears up a big one. Personally I am really glad we got to Dare. He was always a “bridge too far” and the fact that we have completed the vintage lines made him very acceptable to tackle. Not to mention the 2016 line essentially contains all the figures we “wish” we could have put into 2014-2015 had we not been under the obligation to complete the vintage line before 2015 ended. 

Gee! I wonder why a Concept that was Rejected TWICE, would be considered not feasable?
WE DID NOT COMPLETE THE VINTAGE LINES... We only completed Original MOTU*.
*=Not counting playsets, steeds, vehicles or unusual sized figures.
and POP**.  **= Not Counting Variants, steeds, accessory paks, or playsets.
New Adventures IS Vintage... being 26 years old and all that, but whatever, Super Kami Toyguru...
Figures that could have been in if the 30th anniversary Circle Jerk Sub-Line hadn't been used to that, but to celebrate the popular but obscure characters from the archives? Wasting 3 Slots on HRSOHM that could have been used for some of these? Plundor, Nepthu, even NA She-Ra? Spirit of Hordak and an Extra Hordak (either Filmation or BS), Spirit of Grayskull? We could go on... Even my favorite 2pack SAHM vs Hssss and let's not forget Pantsless Hsssss...

So where do we sit now? Well, much like Frodo at the end of the good Middle Earth films, I finished what I set out to do. The vintage line is done! (or at least will be by Dec, you guys, the fans made sure that happened). Anything on top of that feels very much like gravey. 

Not Done if we see the Asterisks... Where are the Meteorbs? Stridor, Fright Zone? Land Shark?
The REAL JETSLED!? Not commenting on the LOTR part...

I am SOOOO glad Mattel is offering a 2016 line, and I’m glad they stuck to the road map I left for this year I’m actually pretty excited to see what they potentially could offer for 2017 since that will be the first year I had nothing to do with the line. It is really nice to just sit back and enjoy new figs coming each month. We have had an amazing ride the last 7 years, thank you for being part of it. 

And Dare could have EASILY been a 2016 spot and let one of the better 2016 characters been in 2015 since all of them, aside Despara and the Horde Wraith who are relatively new. had seniority
 over Dare.

Now Guru goes on Rumor Busting Mode: Beware if you have a mild allergy to bovine feces.

1: Ool-ar was a deliberate name for Jungle He-Man using jungle noises and MOTU naming convention. He was NEVER a misspelling of Mo-larr. The copyrights just came out around the same time. 

Typos Aside on the post: The Character's Spelling Is Oo-Larr... MOTU never had the double r at the end naming convention. The theory of Oo-Larr being a misstyped Mo-Larr has some weight here.
Had he been named under MOTU Naming Conventions, he'd been something like Junglor, Selvor, Wildor, Barba-Ro to showcase he's a MOTU savage man... That's without using the (variable) Man convention from earlier MOTU characters.

2: I never intentionally released a bio to calm issues on the boards. I released bios when they became avail. If bios came out during the middle of a crap storm, it was always coincidence . 

Says the guy who wrote most of them... Not to mention these bios "were written all by the time Stratos was released in 2009"... But he must accept that the Timing of these bios were too Convenient. A crap storm happened and suddenly... a wild bio appears!

3: Green Goddess did not use cheap plastic. There was a problem with the sonic wielder, the same problem happened with DC figs released around this time (Wave 3 and 4 I think). I was quickly fixed and has not happened again. 

 Roboto and Cy-Chop say hi!

4: I never blamed the fans for Roboto or Hssss’ shoulders being revered. What I said was “the details in the shoulders were so small that the fan press didn’t even notice”. I was trying to explain that it is sometimes hard to notice these details, I was not at all holding the reviewers responsible for this. Just using them as an example of how easy it is to miss these, noting that even reviewers missed the shoulders first time out. 

But that was an attempt to deflect Mattel's POOR QC checks made on these figures... Remember Stinkor or Frosta? They were made after the "Eagle Eye Committee" was made to avoid backwards pieces... Also NA Skeletor has backwards shoulders... Unfixable due to the different size pegs on him. The point still stands MATTEL SHOULD BE THE ONES CATCHING THESE ISSUES, NOT US. Then with the secretive crap, it's "Too late to make changes" even if WE NOTICE...

5: Dare was never meant to take over the line in 2016. As you can see from the 2016 line up, he was just a way of getting one more faction into the line. Much as Penny Dreadful pointed out in a great thread last month, Classics was all about hitting as many different eras as possible in Classics and that included SOHM. The idea that he would take over or supplant He-Man or She-Ra was never in the cards. No more then Goatman did as a GoldenBooks figure. 

Ooh! thanks, Dr. Evil! I'm full of Celebrity Guest Stars today!
Yet, why is "the story" pushing Dare and company on us? Then there's the Managerial Mandate to "push the story forward." Instead of giving us new insights on unused characters, we got splash pages tossing everything but the kitchen sink at us.

6: I love She-Ra. I actually like her more then He-Man. The “hole in her head” from her original release was just to allow fans to maximize the display options. Not a commentary on feminism. If it felt like POP had a slower roll out, note that there were always 2-5 POP releases per year. And Bow and Adora count here. A lot of fans over the years only counted POP if you drilled down to POP→female→ had a vintage toy-→ appeared on the cartoon. Under that very small guideline, of course we didn’t get to figs every year. But if you open yourself up to all of POP, you can see we were very POP heavy every year. In fact the 2014 mini sub was basically just the 6 POP that were originally slotted for 2016-2017. Once the roadmap was cut short we had to pull them in to pre 2015 per our 2013 promise. 

Funny that he says he likes She-Ra more than He-Man seeing that more POP Figures had issues than MOTU Figures.
Hey... That reference to commentary on feminism may or may not be a jab at me, since I've made a few jokes about Toyguru's writing seems to be dripping with Misogyny...
On the POP toy rollouts 17 TOY characters Counting Kowl and Loo-Kee as separate items. (So 16 releases) That it took us 7 years to get them is preposterous. Open up to all POP allows us to "pad out" with Horde, which is MOTU (toywise). If we were getting 3-4  Toy POP figures, then the line-up (sans beasts or variants) based on the toys would have been complete in roughly 4 years. (seeing that Kowl and Loo-Kee were released as 1 item, the number of releases being 16 makes it an even 4 figs for 4 years as a perfect number.) but seeing the fact that we wouldn't have completed POP until 2017, made me think... 2017-2008 is about 9 years... If we do math, we'd have to be getting 1.78 POP toy figures per year in order to get them done at the pace Scott wanted... 2 a year...

7: I never intended for Spector to be an important character. He was always a background character meant to bridge different eras (which was a direct request from management for all the 2012 new figs). My only regret was calling him "heroic master of time travel" using the standard MOTU tag line convention (everyone being a "master" of something). A much better tag line might have been "heroic time traveling spy". I tried to address this in the next mini comic to make it very clear how background Spector was intended to be. He was not the new He-Man or star of the line! But I am glad to have a figure of him!

So says the guy who created Spector, WROTE THE MINI COMICS, Has a Pre Super Powers Spector Figure in the line AND The Powered Up Spector... Not to mention how he PUTS SPECTOR IN THE STORYLINE OFTEN... where is Draego? Cy-chop? Castle Grayskullman? FREAKING FEARLESS PHOTOG!? Only Geoff Johns' vanity project or Neitlich's self-insertion are being promoted... Do I need to mention the DC MOTU comic about Sir-Laser-Lot that has a shout out to "Agent Spector"?

Um, Killing Spector*** in the next two Mini Comics won't diminish his importance... Obi-Wan spent
***= This is a THEORY based on Scott's words that Spector's a background character and that he'll show us how background he is.
2.5 (Good) Star Wars movies DEAD and he was important... Aerith Dies on Disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII and she is mega important for the ending and Advent Children.
If Spector DOES INDEED DIE in the next two mini comics it won't change his key player role.
Things that Spector did:
Became the SOLE USER of Time Travel Technology at King He-Man's request...
Has the super power of MEGA LOYALTY... (and Time travel)

He brought Sir Laser Lot back from the past... "under King He-Man's orders"
He became A "Heroic Warrior in the Future!" serving under He-Man and Dare.
He MAY or MAY NOT have been the one to bring Skelebaby to the Future! Neitlich's been hinting that it may have not been Spector, but the picture shows Spector with a blue baby. His actions don't make him THE STAR of the show, but put him on a Duncan Level of Importance. That is what's messed up. Having a Self-Insertion isn't THAT BAD. Being the Super Loyal Hand Picked by He-Man Time Traveling Spy Master doing Secret Missions and moving Key Time Points as if he was some sort of Lord of Time kinda is... This puts his Self-Insertion in Mary Sue Levels... Another Problem is that Neitlich got TWO Self-Insertions. Himself as the Palace Guard and then as a Full-Fledged MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE-erse-erse-erse!

I am glad we got both versions, so I could make TWO Self-Insertions!!

Thanks for hanging in there guys! I hope all our collections continue to grow and grow. MOTU forever and MOTUC forever. Please try not to be too hard on the new team. These are the people trying to GET you more MOTU toys. They (like me before hand) were never your enemy or the bad guy. Try to give them the benefit of the doubt and know all there actions are in your best interest to get out as many great toys as possible! As I noted in the Dare example above, things change ALL THE TIME in the toy industry and many many times something someone says one day can be completely changed the next. It is not lying to the fans, it is just the way logistics of the toy industry work. So try to cut the new team some rope. We are VERY lucky to have Mark and Kim and Brandon. I honestly couldn't think of better folk. Mark would have 100% been my choice as a new director for the brand, Kim worked for me for years running the logistics for the site, and Brandon brings much needed enthusiasm for the work that will only pay off with better figures. Having a passionate designer makes all the difference. 

Sounds like he's taking the high road until the speech becomes the Scott Show.
No, while they ARE WORKING HARD to deliver great products, their interests are with Mattel... Otherwise we'd be getting the Snake Torso without having to pay an additional charge for it...
He keeps trying hard to defend the little Twerp, Dare... Few Like Him... Dare is Sooo Fetch!
Says: Dare will not be in the 2014-15 line-up... Dare ends up in the 2014-15 line-up... This is not a lie!? Sure, but only if we ignore how hard SCOTT WORKED TO GET DARE IN THE LINE-UP AFTER the overwhelming negative reaction of the fandom towards him...
Funny how none of the team wanted to be made public, but Scottie N. Threw them under the bus while praising them... Also throwing Ruben Martinez Subtly under the bus...

 There is a new upper management team as well. In fact, they came into place 1 week before I resigned, so I didn't get to work with them much. This is the forth upper management team that has overseen MOTUC and Matty and it is clear the new team has changed a lot of the rules about what can be shown when. Part of me wishes I had had this management under my time on the brand, but for now, enjoy what we are getting, the huge amount of support Mattel management seems to be showing the brand now, and enjoy collecting what I have always thought was the greatest toy line ever made. 

Well, Hopefully this new team will do better, but I think it's time for Scott to STOP STIRRING IN THE POT... Unlike John Cena, Toyguru's time is OVER!! Of course now it's once again "MANAGEMENT'S" Fault... A few weeks ago it was "Matty was like 90% on my head" now the "Mysterious bosses" make a comeback... One has to wonder how come a Jakks Manager spends so much time on a Mattel Product Board while giving romanticized verbose speeches of his time at Mattel... He should be focusing on having Jakks Pacific develop a line of Diorama/accessory packs for 6-7 toylines... Jungle, urban, medieval fantasy... Those kind of things.

Filmation Sub-Line fears...

He-Man.org made another round of Mattel Q&As available a while back...

This Question and Answer scare me:
MegaGearMax made the question below:

5. MegaGearMax: Does a Filmation-accurate figure candidate have to have a prior figure release in Classics? I ask because every character revealed thus far for the 2016 line has an alternate counterpart in Classics. Or is this merely a coincidence?

To which Mattel Replied:

No that is not a requirement. One of the reasons that the Filmation line is happening is to not only deliver cartoon accurate versions of the MOTU characters from that series, but it is also a way for potential new He-Man and MOTU fans to get some of the core characters that might be impossible to get now in MOTUC.

All of you are aware of my Dislike towards the Filmation Sub-Line's lack of sculpt details on Fur and Hair. Having NON-VARIANTS in this Sub-Line would be detrimental to MOTUC collectors. Not ALL HM&MOTU Figures can blend in with MOTUC... Case in point Beastman.

Now, I COULD BE MISINTERPRETING this, but this may open up that sub-line to new characters pulled out of the Collector's Line into the blander underdetailed line. That Scares me. Characters like Kittrina will miss out on detailing that they'd need to blend into classics. (mostly fur and hair), Marzo, who'd lose detail on his hair. Hawke whose feathers would look like lame lollipops. Garn would become a mostly new tooled figure... stripped of details...

On the other hand, this could be a godsend... Characters who are not exactly mega popular in the grand scheme of things, but core for the cartoon (which would be impossible to get in MOTUC because they don't exist)... COULD bypass the CC line and jump ahead in the Filmation Sub-Line...
This would include Melaktha, who I've campaigned for him to get made. It could also include The Spirit of Evil... BLEGH! Crackers the Clown, DOUBLE BLEGH!! The Christmas Special Kids!!
Starchild!!

Hopefully I'm misinterpreting it and the Filmation Sub-Line is only for variants... I mean is not like Neitlich is still stirring the pot...

I'm gonna have a Field Day with this bit alone:

7: I never intended for Spector to be an important character. He was always a background character meant to bridge different eras (which was a direct request from management for all the 2012 new figs). My only regret was calling him "heroic master of time travel" using the standard MOTU tag line convention (everyone being a "master" of something). A much better tag line might have been "heroic time traveling spy". I tried to address this in the next mini comic to make it very clear how background Spector was intended to be. He was not the new He-Man or star of the line! But I am glad to have a figure of him!

But not Tonight... I've some important business... Piece back My Childhood, because it was DESTROYED!!

8 days until The Phantom Pain...

So, it looks like I may need to replay Ground Zeroes to get in shape... It's been roughly 15 months since I've played Metal Gear Queefer.

One Partial Replay Later:

I still Hate Sutherland's voice. The controls are a bit unnatural, but will take some time to get used to. I've been capturing US Soldiers left and right... Hopefully They will be useful in Mother Base...

Hell, I even acquired some MREs... The Modern Counterpart to C-Rats to eat as part of my training...
Using an Eyepatch is horrible for gameplay... To Think Like Snake you HAVE TO BECOME Snake... or in this case Big Boss...

Not going to mention the part where I used a Refrigerator Cardboard box to sleep in. I know it's not accurate, but it's the Mansion of the Cardboard Box World.

Here's hoping that The Phantom Pain IS A LOT BETTER than Ground Zeroes... It's the end of an Era... The Final Metal Gear... The Final HIDEO KOJIMA METAL GEAR game...

8 more days until the final revelations... 8 more days and I may never buy another Konami Game EVER AGAIN... It's kinda scary...

In any case... 8* days for me to be able to do THIS!!
*=May take more depending on free time and Mother Base Resources...

Saw the Unauthorized Full House movie... Here's what I learned

And it was better than the Saved by the Bell one... but that's not saying much...

Candace Cameron's mom was the real villain in the story... Until the Olsen's parents saw all the dough rake in.

Those Lifetime Movies suck at casting... The actors chosen to play the characters looked nothing like the characters. The closest one was Justin Gaston, who I seem to recall had dated Miley...

It wasn't as horrible as the SBTB one because this one had the Full House Sappiness.

They were afraid of doing Real Saget-like skits when showing Not-Saget at all


Garret Brawith has a Reed Richards vibe to him. (better than Miles Teller)

Bad wigs... Bad wigs everywhere!

They AVOIDED most of the real drama... and it felt like a Dramatization of the IMDB Trivia page.

Boy Meets World or Fresh Prince could fall victims to the Lifetime unauthorized movies... We're getting 90210 and Melrose Place.

No... There is another they NEED to do...


It was lighthearted and seemed more respectful of Full House than the Saved by the Bell one.

I should avoid watching Lifetime.

Variants that are REALLY NEEDED in MOTUC (not theFilmation sub-line)

Every once in a while I revisit lists of characters that could be made in MOTUC when new reveals arise, or if fan forums have heated discussions about certain characters.

My previous Rant about WMD Roboto made me think: The Collector's Choice sub is a smaller sub and that means reduced items... Variants will most likely take a back seat, but we kinda NEED certain Variants... I'm going to do a small list of Variants that we need in classics and justify them.

I'll do my best not to fill the list with multiple variants of the same character. 200X Roboto is not on this list because he is "the King Grayskull" to this list's "MOTUC" but he is VERY Important!!

Without further ado, here's the list of NEEDED VARIANTS AFTER 200X Roboto (That are not Filmation variants) for the MOTUC CC Line:

-DC Teela the Woman-at-Arms:
She's the Captain of the Royal Guard and she goes into Battle with a slightly armored Swimsuit... (and I am not talking about the Metal Bikini Teela) While it looks sexy as hell, it's impractical... But I must admit that in a weird way a fully armored Teela IS Sexy as hell. Not to mention cool looking. If General Duncan wears the Orange and Green, then Captain Teela should do it as well.

-Discs of Doom Skeletor:
Yes, I'm aware that the ONE SKELETOR I'm choosing is a New Adventures Skeletor... That is Precisely why he is here. DoD Skeletor was the version seen most of the New Adventures cartoon. That is the reason why he is here.

-Mini Comics Tri-Klops: (I call him Trydor E.Scope: Texeiran Bounty Hunter)
It's a different look for Tri-Klops, and we can toss in the Trik-Klops head and a second Tri-Klops head before he got the spinning Visor. If Mattel plays it smart they could make the top part interchangeable and only use one head with 2-3 interchangeable visors (tri-klops visor, Blind Swordsman bandanna. and weird blind visor)

-Ice Armor He-Man:
The last Fan-Demanded 200X Variant of He-Man that is not Vanilla 200X look. The Sole He-Man variant of this list. Also a nice way to reuse that 200X Head and maybe get a new 200X Right Forearm... to get closer to a 200X Vanilla He-Man (one that if we use the KG Harness on a second one we get a MOTUC KG... but that will have to wait a while.)

-Savage Catra:
It's different enough from Filmation Catra and we Kinda Need a Catra variant after She-Ra got two of those... Toss in the Shower Power gun and make her tail turn into a furry whip and we have a winner!

-Starburst She-Ra:
Mattel KINDA Owes us a Vintage Styled She-Ra. Starburst She-Ra is the perfect option to complete the She-Ras and to give us one to mix and match to make a true Toy She-Ra.

-200X Sorceress:
You know that I'm gonna push for Sorcelestia to be made. Veena is not enough for me! I need a non-vegas showgirl Sorceress... Mostly because of DEM WINGS... and by my Reference to Celestia. Pone Jokes are coming!

-Diplomatic Armor Marlena:
Yes, this list is a bit 200X Heavy, due to 200X Having some COOL designs, but the Diplomatic Armor Marlena is a decent fit (with the Cap Glen Head) for The Toy Randor. (I'm not that fond of Astronaut Marlena being in Battle...)

-iOS/Android Horde Trooper:
Horde Trooper Repaint from the Most Powerful Game in the Universe... Excuse to get new troopers.

-Mini Comic Snout Spout:
For those who do not like the 200X Head and have a Rotting Trunk, then Mini Comic Snout Spout is perfect!

-DC Stratos: (The one that looks like Normal Stratos with Blue Pants)
It looks somewhat like Stratos and can be used as a Generic Avionian next to the Real Deal... Better than the weird Winged Spidey/Deadpool one we got recently...

-Power Tour Hordak:
YES! We need a 6th Hordak wearing the same outfit, with a TEENSY Difference over the other Hordaks... This one would be the only one with a Gray Torso and the Half Armor... I'm being sarcastic here... but it gives us a Power Tour Representative... It was either him or Jazz Hands Grizzlor. Mattel could toss in some Removable 200X Hordak parts on him to make him pop.

There's a few variants that I'd like to see that I had to leave out, in order to not repeat characters or fill the spots with Toy PoP.

Jared might be getting $5 footlongs in jail...

Remember roughly a month ago the bit of news about Jared's place being raided by the Feds looking for child porn? Well, according to "sources" he might make a deal and plead guilty on those charges. Now cue angry replies by someone calling out my hypocrisy by using the $5 Footlong reference as a joke about him being prison-raped...

The Footlong is a penis...
I counter with I said "MIGHT" based on the news claiming that he will plead guilty about the child pornography charges. Not to mention that his sort of Celebrity Status may allow him to be imprisoned away from the general prison population... and their brand of Rapey Justice against peopled convicted of Child Pornography charges. Dammit! The clickbaityTitle of the rant also ruins my CSI Miami styled joke that I had planned. Either way, Jared is screwed... and he shall be forever known as a child molester... even if he did not molest any child, because everyone will twist the story and make him into something worse.
And looks like he DID have sex with underage people...  Jared just dug his own grave now...
At least Subway FINALLY Removed the Jared Pants Dance Game...

Why a 200X Roboto is the better choice for a Roboto 2.0

While my Headpack is sitting on West Sac or Sparks, Nevada chilling with ma cuz, Evil Seed and "I did not hit her, I did Nawt Ohai Mark!" Hordak; I've been thinking... We're going to need a new Roboto if the legends of the Cracking Torso are true. "The headpack may do more harm than good!" have said the doomsayers. I kinda see WHY they say it, given Roboto's History...

So, we'd need a New Roboto from Mattel. Mattel has the Following Choices:
-Mini-comic Roboto: which is mostly an orange and Magenta repaint of Roboto
-DC Comics Roboto: which could be made with the normal torso and existing pieces... maybe new forearms, head and hands for good measure.
-200X Roboto which depending on what approach they take on him could be few new pieces needed or a 100% new Sculpt.
-Filmation Roboto who would need NEARLY 100% New Tooling.

Personally I'd go with 200X Roboto.
Now this brings up another issue: Standard Size 200X Roboto or Larger Ram Man sized 200X Roboto?

My answer will be Normal Sized Roboto... Because we don't have a Gigantic Beastman, Clawful or Whiplash for him to fight. (We already have 1 Juggernaut with Ram Man)
That is good news for Mattel since a Normal Sized Roboto reduces their need for new pieces to:
-Removable Torso Armor (with a place to hold one of his extra weapons)
-Boots
-Loincloth
-Weapons (Namely the Shoulder Gatling gun and the Left Hand Gun)
everything else comes from Roboto, 200X Headpak and Blast Attak.

and Mattel could even REDUCE the new parts needed with a bit of creative reuse and the Classicizer excuse... Oh yeah! I forgot! No More ♠...

200X Roboto has quite a few appearances in the MYP Cartoon.
The design has been mostly well received by fans, especially when he takes out all of his weapons in a way similar to Rio Blast. This mode has been nicknamed by the He-Man.org users as WMD Roboto.

That gives some weight to the 200X Roboto to be a better option for Roboto 2.0...

From a Tooling Standpoint a Normal Sized 200X Roboto may be in second or third place, depending on WHICH DC Roboto is chosen as a candidate. first Place would be Mini comics Roboto...
Fun fact: I had to choose between receiving a Mini Comics MOTUC Roboto custom or a MOTUC Shadow Weaver...
I LOATHE DC Roboto. It took out what made Roboto, well Roboto. The DC Version looks like a Modern Superhero Robot, which is NOT Roboto. Roboto is supposed to be a Futuristic Steampunk-Looking Robot. you take away the Steampunk Elements and you lose Roboto.
The Combination of exposed wiring, Gears, and Steam vents are what sells the Steampunk look for Roboto and helps him work better in MOTU. The 200X Version looses a bit of the Steampunk vibe, but keeps the Vintage Robot look with the big clunky feet that kinda remind me of something out of Mazinger or Megaman X...

The 200X Version can still co-exist with the vintage one... well, ALL of them can if we consider that Roboto can upload his OS into a new Robotic body. "Battleground Roboto" or "Battle Armor Roboto" are perfect titles to the variant... if they want to save the name WMD Roboto for an oversized figure.

The best part of a 200X Roboto in Classics is that if done as a normal sized figure and you prefer the Vintage Roboto, then you can swap the legs at the knee with the MOTUC Roboto and have a Newer Vintage Roboto with right facing shoulders and non-cracking torso. (You may need to repaint the thigh vents, but that is easy to do.)  You wouldn't be able to do that with any of the other versions.

Disney's Not Ever After High is getting a sequel.

That's right: The Fairy Tale High School Musical movie is getting a sequel. While I kind of enjoyed the first... More like saw it's potential being squandered by forcing it into a musical; I am not too excited about it getting a sequel.

Think about it, there is no real tension:
Maleficent is a newt. The rest of the villains are stuck in the Isle of the Lost. Not to mention that the rest of them were useless... The Descendants proved themselves as heroes and kind of adapted to their new lives. What are they going to do?

Rehash the first movie with NEWER Villains' kids? Some jealous teens were jealous of the opportunity the Descendants got and try to ruin it for them once THEY get their chance?

A Battle of the schools kind of thing? Isle of the Lost vs Auradon?

I know! The Summer vacation special!! (No idea where I've seen that before)


Or they'll go with the cliche Mal's got Maleficent trapped in her and now she's being EVIL!! because she flashed Green eyes at the end of the movie.

Personally I want them ALL TO HAPPEN BUT, in an Animated Series. That would allow for further situations and expand how the Descendants adapt to Auradon. with Live action we have a few issues, namely actors growing up. At least in animation you can get sound-alikes if the real actor grows too much or their agent gets greedy.

It Came from the Toy Chest: Beyblademen!

Let it rip!! The Energy Zoids have arrived... What are they? MOTU's TOP MEN... Literally TOP MEN... Or TOP MAN and TOP ROBOT. Top half is the humanoid half, the bottom half is a top... like a spinning top.

So, we also have the first handicapped character in MOTU... Trap Jaw and Spikor are technically amputees... and Mekaneck, oh Celestia! Mekaneck, I don't even know how to begin with him. OK Rotar is technically not the first handicapped character, but he's the first one who pretty much lost EVERYTHING FROM THE WAIST DOWN...
HE has no bunghole... Also he's a Walter Peck... I hope that Rotar had sex before losing his Johnson, otherwise he'll be a virgin...

Twistoid is just a robot that Skeletor made after getting penis envy over Rotar...

So, let's crack 'em open and see what the deal is with AW HELL NAW!
LEGS! I ended up being wrong, way wrong on them.

I have to be honest... I don't like the Energy Zoids... But they are a requirement to complete the Vintage Roster... So, I'll start with a comic showcasing them in a way reminiscent of the FIRST It Came From the Toy Chest.

 

But, we need Ratings and Explanations and all that, so here they are!

Articulation:
When including the legs. Rotar and Twistoid behave like standard MOTUC Figures. My Twistoid has a bit of an issue with rotating the arms up or down. They tend to get a bit stuck at times.
4.0 for Rotar 3.5 for Twistoid

Paint and Sculpt:
They look like the Vintage Toys Classicized... Rotar is mostly made out of old pieces, but Twistoid got new arms and forearms... Wonder if the Biceps could be reused on Artilla.
Legs are blegh! Especially Twistoid's. Seeing that I'll display them legless, the legs aren't important. Now I want to talk about their armors and heads. I see everyone suggesting turn their heads backwards to have an "alternate look for them". Don't. The Helmet and armor designs remind me of the mimicry ability that some animals have. (Like some moths having wing patterns that look like the eyes of a larger predator, or how the Milk Snake kinda resembles the Coral Snake.) The armor on the back of the E-Zoids looks like the front. Same with the helmet. Since these guys spin around like crazy, the enemy won't be able to discern the front from the back when attacking. Oops! getting sidetracked there.

Paintwise, they're mostly OK-ish, aside Twistoid's big blue slop on his helm.

I'd say about 3.5 for Rotar and 3.5 for Twistoid.

Accessories:
We have stupid legs. Boring stands, less boring stands, and 1 crappy weapon per character.
5.0 for both due to the amount of stuff that they have.

Overall score:
Rotar gets a 4.17 as his overall score and Twistoid gets a 4.0 which gives this pack an overall score of: 4.09, which is good. Here's the thing, while it IS a good score, I AM Underwhelmed by the figures. I feel like the legs were a waste of time and money, the reduced Deco on the weapons and craptacular sculpted chain hurts them. These guys are so not worth the $55 tag that they got. Had they axed the legs, they would have been cheaper and maybe more exciting.

I'm hoping that the 2016 SDCC Item packs some more bite than this...

Shapeways Extravaganza Returns!

DJForce's Weapon's forge is on FIRE!! The items were there, I had an opportunity and went on a Shopping Spree!
I stuck mostly to 200X Themed stuff, but a Filmation item snuck through. The rest are brand new stuff based on the Fan movie: The Fall of Grayskull.




Let's get the Filmation Out of the way, because of Seniority:
The sword comes from the She-Ra series and it's a Generic sword for the Horde Troopers.
These swords end up being broken by the heroes and DJForce has a broken version as well.

I like that the sword is Generic enough that could be used on other figures, but this one will be for Toy ME!! Until Sunder Arrives sometime in 2016. Then he gets the sword. If you have enough scratch, your Horde Troopers could use these as an alternative to the Batons... Of course you'll also need the broken sword when displaying them against She-Ra.



Now we head into The Fall of Grayskull!
This time I skipped 2 Items (The Amulet, because of Plot Reasons that I have yet to understand and Teela's blaster, who I might end up buying for a different character in the future...) Instead I got 2 Tri-Klops Daggers... Because Dual Wielding Tri-Klops...

You can combine a Sword AND A Dagger, but I got Two Daggers because I like the idea of TK having Two Daggers and a sword.









The cool thing about these daggers is that they fit Tri-Klops' Holster on his back...

That means that you can have him use the sword AND a Dagger while keeping the other dagger on his back... If you get two Daggers. I used a Toy Inspired look for the colors on the daggers.

The other Item is the Fall of Grayskull Power Sword. which will not be He-Man's sword, but my PoorWun-Dar's sword. (In my fanon, the sword works like Souledge or SoulCalibur. It changes shape with each wielder.)

Since I said that this sword will go to my Wun-Dar custom
 codenamed Poor-Dar, I painted it in a Wun-Dar inspired palette. It's not accurate to the fan-film, but I like it!

Now we head into 200X Territory:
First two Items are for El-Hombre himself! They are the two Items that Mattel always forgets to give He-Man... The Ax and Shield CLASSICIZED!

Slightly reduced Detail and more balanced Ax... The Official 200X Toy Ax is super heavy and the shaft feels flimsy. When moving a few years back, my He-Ax broke clean off the shaft...(damn right!) The Shapeways Ax feels Sturdier compared to the Actual Toy.


The shield has a MOTUC C-Clip! He-Man can hold ALL 3 ITEMS on his hands!!!
Once both Items got the Paint Treatment, they came to life and Look FREAKING SWEET!!
(May have to get a second set of these for Faker...)

The Third 200X Item is: Webstor's Arachna Blaster!!
Based on the Rifle from the staction, which is inspired by the vintage rifle. Now Webstor can have an original weapon! That way Plundor can keep the Vintage Webstor Rifle and I can give the Plundor Rifle to a Palace Guard... or Karg! I'm still surprised that I painted it ORANGE like the vintage toy, seeing that I hate the Orange Rifle on him...

You can get these at DJ Force Weapons Forge.

Who has 2 thumbs and is getting a Despara and a Crita?

Everyone who has two thumbs and bought a Collector's Choice sub starting with this guy! I once thought it would fail, but I was wrong.

the sub went trough!


supposedly, it went 75% the goal...


Now here's the Debbie Downer moment...

Only 1 New Adventures character (from the original toys) on the sub... At this rate we'll NEVER FINISH New Adventures (without counting variants)

I mean we're missing:

Galactic Protectors:
Kayo
Nocturna
Vizar
Sagitar
Spinwit
Artilla

Space Mutants:
Hoove
Quakke
Butthead
Lizorr
Staghorn

That's 11 Characters WITHOUT Counting Master Sebrian. on a 7 figure sub, we'd need 6 years to get all NA... Hopefully this 75% over the goal will help speed up at least a BIT of NA so we don't wait 6 years.

Enough about the bitching, let's think of the good parts:
75% over the goal WITHOUT THE VINTAGE MOTU CRUTCH... That IS Something to celebrate!!

JEM is trying to pull off a Trankt4stic move.

I had heard rumors about the reshoots to the lame Hannah Montana/Saved by the Bell Zack Attack! Episode inspired Jem and the Holograms.
Trailer 2 confirms the reshoots...


They added a...
 












HERBIE the Robot to replace Synergy... This keeps getting better and better! They are hamfisting Cartoon Elements and Failing to a movie that was Clearly NOT JEM. Now her Earrings are some sort of USB cards that saved home movies and whenever Jerrica is down, she can plug the Earrings on HERBIE to watch home movies.
I'll Let Mr. Takei explain how I feel about the people involved in this movie:


Suddenly, the Trankt4stic isn't looking that bad... and that movie makes Wiseau and Boll look good!

Ugh! The Neitlichverse is making me sick Pt. II

Part One of this not rant took my fan continuity through the timeline until The New Adventures era started. Part Two may touch on the rest of the timeline. I'm still thinking if I will touch the Son of He-Man aspect of the Neitlichverse, or change it radically.

I want to explain how some things work in my fan continuity before I do the rest of the timeline.

Sword of Power:
The sword of Power is not a normal weapon. By that, I mean that the sword in its purest form is an Energy construct, or the raw power of the universe when it was created.
While it WAS CREATED by the Trollans (well, more like reshaping that raw power in a manageable form), it wasn't intended to be used by Trollans. That was why He-Ro was chosen as the Wielder.

When He-Ro uses the blade, he uses it as an Energy Blade in its purest form. When He-Ro dies, the sword seems to have vanished. When Grayskull finds the sword, it presents itself to him as a magnificent sword, of the finest steel. As Grayskull wields the sword, he learns the nature of it. Hence the splitting of the blade in two halves.

The splitting of the swords that destroyed the Horde and Protected Eternia became legends.
Many made copies of what they thought the Holy blades looked like. (Splitting Gar swords, etc.)
Throughout the span of Eternia's long history of war, many warriors wielded these half swords. Some were unaware that their trusty weapon was one half of the legendary sword. Others were sworn to protect the half sword with their lives. The reason for this is that each half kept the shape shifting properties of the original blade. (this is to allow for the different versions of the sword to coexist. In my case, I use a repainted Staction Vintage looking sword for KG, while I use the Technosword for Adam. Now if I could get casts of She-Ra's 200X sword... This also allows me to use some shapeways weapons, like the Alcala Power sword for Oo-Larr, or the NU52 sword for uh, Wun-Dar? No, King He-Man... He gets the NU52 sword...)

NONE of those who wielded the half blades could unlock the sword's power. Not even the Descendant of King Grayskull and Legendary Hero of Prophecy. This was because NONE of them have wielded the Full sword since King Grayskull.

The half swords have another trick up their sleeve. a bit of the essence of their wielders stayed within the swords. Because the swords were not whole they could only absorb bits and pieces. (combat techniques, spells and other combat related things.) The exceptions were He-Ro and Grayskull. Because they wielded the FULL Blade, the swords kept more of their essence locked inside. If someone in the far future wields the NEW Sword of Power and the Sword of Protection, he or she may be able to channel some of He-Man or She-Ra's abilities too!

Techno Swords:
The Techno Swords are the answer for Adam and Adora to use the full power until their blades are not bound to Grayskull. The Technoswords are not purely technological in nature. I'd say they're 30% Technology and 70% Magic (to Duncan's chagrin) The Metal for these comes straight from the original two wielders of the actual Sword of Power. Then they were magically imbued with some of the essence of the original users. The techno shell surrounding each half is basically an emulator of the other half. The bits of essence from He-Ro and KG is what completes the circle. In the Sword of Protection's case the Stone of Protection enhances the bond of Metal with soul, which explains why Adora can do some stuff that Adam cannot do with his blade.

Transformations: (Adam to He-Man, Adora to She-Ra)
We know that Adam and Adora tap into the Power of Grayskull when transforming. It's obvious that Adam's biggest source is King Grayskull, while Adora's is He-Ro. As explained above, the Emulators have something to do with that since one uses Metal that was imbued with more essence of He-Ro, (staff and armor) while the other uses Metal from Grayskull's other weapons.
In Adam's case, when he was a teen, the Sorceress used an ancient spell to help disguise Adam's appearance in order to protect the inexperienced He-Man from being attacked at his weakest...
Seeing that Skeletor did not know of Oo-Larr's death, The Sorceress disguised Adam as the He-Man who fought against Skeletor when she was simply Teela'Na.
As Adam grew into the Hero of Prophecy, the disguise began to fade away until Adam and He-Man were one and the same. This idea is a justification to why people don't realize that Adam and He-Man are one and the same.

She-Ra's case is slightly different. The radical change from Adora to She-Ra comes from her thirst for redemption. Hence the whole White Dress and gold attire. (That also explains the pretty princess long hair.) The wings on her helm come from Zoar. The cape from He-Ro.

Serpent's ring (Ring of Serpos) and SMAA:
The Serpent's ring is one of the many "presents" the Un Named One has given to his heralds in order to do his bidding. (For the Horde, we got the Nanite Techno Virus, which razes worlds in order to dig out Star Seeds.)

This Artifact is one of the ways the Original Snakemen King (King Hssss' father) had to create new servants. It also served as a key to summon the Unholy beast Serpos. The Viper Tower would be the door. Serpos, would raze the world of opposition until the UNO could harvest the Star Seed of that world.

After the fall of Grayskull, the Snakemen became almost extinct and what little of them was left went underground. There, the Snakemen discovered that those who were not PURE Snakemen and were converted via the ring could actually mate with either snakefolk or humans.

I think that's enough for items that may have needed explanations... Now let's try and tackle New Adventures.

New Adventures of He-Man and She-Ra:

-Skeletor had been hunting for Hordesmen and gathering additional information on the Horde for years until he reached Denebria. There he defeated an army of Former Hordesmen who decided to take over their sector of the Galaxy in their own name instead of the Horde. Feigning defeat against their Leader General Brakk (called General Flogg behind his back due to his use of an Energy Flogger.), Skeletor guided Flogg to do his bidding. His first target, Primus, home of the Tri-Solar Galaxy's Starseed.

-Adora, appointed Guardian of Eternia and Etheria helps keep the peace in both worlds with the aid of members of the Eternian Heroic Warriors, the Etherian Heroic Warriors (the former Great Rebellion) and her husband, Bow.

-He-Man arrives to Primus and meets the Galactic Protectors in a grand parade celebrating the arrival of He-Man, known throughout the Galaxy as an enemy of the Evil Horde. Master Sebrian, Leader of Primus and father of General Darius takes He-Man as his guest. Adam reveals his identity to Sebrian and asks of him to keep it a secret, in order to be able to move around Primus without drawing too much attention to himself. The Primian sage agrees with the proposition.

-He-Man and Skeletor cross paths on Primus for the first of many times.

-With the Arrival of He-Man, Skeletor wrests control out of the Space Mutants from Flogg and carries out a vendetta against his nephew.

-Adora is forced to retire from heroics during the time of her Pregnancy. Glimmer becomes Godmother of Adora and Bow's child (Dare) and Adora becomes Godmother of Adam and Glimmer's twins, Abelle and Kaine. Teela erases the memories of the Children from Adora, Glimmer and Bow in order to keep them protecting both worlds.*
*=NOTE:
I am drifting from the Neitlichverse when dealing with the kids. The reason I added a few more to the story is simple: The Mattel story has a huge issue. If He-Man HAS the Power and is still young enough to fight, then WHY IS HE ON THE SIDELINES? There needs to be a real reason for him not to fight. Having his flesh and blood be the next big bad would make sense. He-Man would be unable to physically fight the son he failed. I'm using the following line of reasoning: He-Man would hold back when fighting Family, My guess, is that He-Man is able to fight Skeletor BECAUSE he believes that Keldor can be saved and that his "evil" stems from Demo-Man. Adora's time as Despara stems from Horde "brainwashing". Now, by having HIS SON be a villain, Adam's own conscience would make him step aside. That's not thinking about the PR nightmare for Mattel by having He-Man beat up children.


-The Tri Solar War reaches an end when Skeletor finally finds Horde Prime's location and abandons the Tri Solar Galaxy with an obviously pregnant Crita. Flogg takes back control of the Mutant army and accepts a peace treaty with the People of Primus.

-He-Man returns to Eternia once he finds out that Horde Prime is headed there.

-He-Man, She-Ra, Skeletor, the Heroic Warriors, the Evil Warriors the Mutants AND Galactic Protectors take on the Gigantic Horde Prime. During the Battle, He-Man saves Jitsu's life.

-At the cost of many warriors' lives, including Bow's (who died heroically protecting his wife.) Horde Prime's Gigantic Exoskeleton is destroyed, revealing the true form inside.

-Skeletor, He-Man and She-Ra take Horde Prime on their own and order their troops to fall back. Horde Prime unleashes his power on the Twins and Skeletor.

-Using arcane magics, Horde Prime Purges Demo-Man out of Skeletor, mortally wounding him. As he was dying, Keldor confesses to He-Man that he CHOSE the path of evil willingly and not under the influence of others.

-Horde Prime focuses his attacks on Adora and summons from deep within her psyche the Despara part of her and gives it a physical form. Now She-Ra has to battle her worst enemy, herself.

-With She-Ra distracted, Horde Prime attacks He-Man. Not being able to keep up with the enraged He-Man, Horde Prime Forces the Generator of his ship to Overload, with the ship being so close to Eternia, the explosion would destroy the Planet.

-A warrior in Purple, who calls himself Spector enters the battle and using a Cosmic Key tries to pull the ship out of  Eternian Space. As both She-Ra and Despara II realize Horde Prime's strategy, they join He-Man in the battle.

-As Horde Prime is killed by the Twins of Power and Adora's fears made flesh, the Generator explodes taking He-Man, She-Ra and Despara with it.

-With the seemingly death of He-Man and She-Ra Teela raises the children on her own. She uses various magics and creates false worlds for the children to grow. (Dare is raised on the Vine Jungle, echoing Oo-Larr's upbringing and the filmatiopn concept for Dare, Abelle and Kaine are raised on Eternos by their parents.) Glimmer returns to Eternos to act as Queen Regent.

-The swords return to Grayskull and Teela keeps them in the chamber of power.

-News of the death of Adam spread throughout Eternia and some of the former forces of Skeletor begin to rally under Jitsu to keep peace on the Dark Hemisphere, while others rally under Evil Lyn's command.

-Crita gives birth to a girl, named Keldra after her deceased father. Evil Lyn decides to use Crita and her child as tools to bolster her armies. While Crita is not interested in war, conquest of Eternia and all the hullaballoo, she tags along in order to have a place to stay on Eternia. Evil Lyn senses a small magic potential within Keldra.

-Two years after Keldra was born, a Mysterious Time Traveler gives Evil Lyn her long lost child, Keldeen: Son of Keldor. Evil Lyn senses some strong arcane magics at work and she peers into them.

-Evil Lyn begins to train Keldra in magical arts. As soon as Keldeen is old enough he begins training.
Due to Keldeen's Bloodlines with strong connection to magic, he quickly surpasses his half-sister. Keldra decides to focus her talents elsewhere.

-The light Hemisphere sees another decade of peace.

-Kaine is the first of the Children of Power to break through the illusion. He awakens his sister and cousin who are all deeply confused to what is going on. Teela promises them an explanation in due time... She allows the children to explore Grayskull, since they are the Castle's heirs.

-Dare finds the chamber of the swords. Both he and Kaine are drawn to them. Before they can touch them, Teela teleports them out of the room and commands them to NEVER go in there.

- A dazed and confused He-Man appears out of the Sword's room. His reappearance lifts the spell that made everyone forget about the children.

-An Angry Glimmer reaches Castle Grayskull and is shocked to see her husband alive. She is distraught with Teela for hiding HER CHILDREN for years. They decide to spend the night at Grayskull in order for everyone to catch up with everything.
(Adam's hellish years in Horde World trying to locate Adora without his sword. Glimmer's life as regent and preparing the Children for the real world aside what little Teela did prepare them for.)

-Kaine sneaks into the Power Chamber and takes the Power Sword. Determined to keep the power to himself, he decides to kill his sister. A restless Dare wakes up and sees Kaine sneaking around the Castle. The moment Kaine tries to kill his sister with the Power Sword, the Sword of Protection materializes in Dare's hand and he uses it to protect Abelle from Kaine.

-During the commotion, Adam wakes up and sees his nephew and son fighting each other. When he steps in to stop the fight, Kaine strikes at him with the Power Sword. Adam is able to stop the sword, but not before he is scarred by his son. The Power sword emits a bright glow that scars Kaine and gives him a Skeletor-like visage.

-Teela uses her magic to try and undo the Mark on Kaine, but to no avail. Adam, Teela and Glimmer end up arguing about Kaine's fate. Teela wants to kill him. Glimmer wants to take him home, and Adam wants to keep him in Grayskull. Kaine overhears them and escapes Grayskull through the Subternia gate towards the Dark Hemisphere.

-Once Adam realizes that Kaine is gone, he prepares to search for him, but a Cosmic Enforcer stops him with a warning straight from Trolla.

-Adam retreats into the chamber of Power and forges two new swords with the aid of Kayo of Primus, Light Hope and the Wise King of Dragons, Granamyr.

-With these new swords**, Adam trains Abelle and Dare in the ways of the Power. When the day comes, they will wield the actual swords.
**=NOTE:The new swords forged by He-Man can tap into the Powers of Eternia and Etheria, due to the Eternian and Etherian Blood running through the Children's veins. These Swords were specifically made to tap into BOTH branches of the power, but with a couple of failsafe measures. The Transformations will not last longer than a whole day and require an equal amount of downtime. 

-a masked Kaine reaches Snake Mountain and seeks an audience with Evil Lyn. He beats up various henchmen and Fights Keldeen to a standstill. Kaine mockingly christens his second cousin as Skeleteen. Ironically, he was easily defeated by Keldra and her tricks... not to mention Kaine's overconfidence. With Kaine's face revealed, Keldeen has an idea to rename his group the Sons of Skeletor. Kaine dubs Keldra Skullatrix and Kaine decides to call himself SkelThor. Keldeen is chosen to become the leader, because he is the son of Skeletor, but Kaine becomes second in command since his appearance is the closest TO Skeletor. Keldra only tags along because in her words, "eh, whatever."
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This sets up the pieces for the newest game of control over Eternia:
On the side of good we have the Heroic Warriors, with Adam acting as mentor. He will fight if given no option, but he will NOT physically fight against his son, or cousins.
Dare and Abelle are basically the He-Man and She-Ra to Adam's Randor.
The new Heroic Warriors aid some of the remaining Heroic Warriors from Adam's time.

On the side of Evil we have:
Jitsu's Marauders: While they do not venture to the Light Hemisphere much, to honor a truce with He-Man; they are still evil warriors and will attack ANYONE who wanders into their lands uninvited.  While Jitsu may have a beef with Evil Lyn and the Sons of Skeletor. he may help them for the right price.

The Sons of Skeletor:
This is where Skeleteen, SkelThor and Skullatrix rule. Skeleteen wants to Rule Eternia, since he believes that he is the real heir to the throne. SkelThor wants to take the Power of Grayskull for himself and step out of He-Man's shadow. Evil Lyn acts as consigliere to Skeleteen and is secretly plotting to betray Kaine when it suits her.

The idea is to have this 3 way war for Eternia while adding characters and some different twists, like Abelle and Keldra becoming friends after being captured by a non-key character... (I'll say Nepthu for teh lulz) and I mean REALLY good friends to the point that when the factions are not at war, they hang out together.

Eventually She-Ra would Return to warn Adam about the coming of Gorpo: Herald of the Unnamed One.

-Final Battle All vs UNO.



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Now about the Kids and the Power:
If you notice All of them have an Eternian Parent and an Etherian Parent. I have previously mentioned that the Power coursing through He-Man and She-Ra went beyond Castle Grayskull's and became the powers of Eternia and Etheria. The children having parents from both worlds allows them to tap into BOTH Power Sources... The reason for this is simple: Justifying Variants.

For Dare it's simple since the TWO Eternian Armors have been designed. The Filmation look would be his Default Eternia Power Look, while the Ginger NA He-Man is the equivalent to the Battle Armor.
For his Etheria Power looks, I thought along the lines of taking Elements from She-Ra's armor. For his default look the main Inspiration WAS the DC She-Ra. The Speed Update (or the Equivalent to Flying Fists/Bubble Power) would be the Snipe Armor. As you can guess his weapon would be a Golden Ninjor Bow.
Inheriting Bow's accuracy PLUS the strength and speed of She-Ra makes Dare able to pull off shots that would be impossible for mere mortals.

For Abelle, I am a bit stumped on the visuals for her Etherian Power Modes and one of the Eternian Power modes. I have an idea of a more feminine version of the Ironman Pants He-Man look for her "Strength mode".
Her Etherian looks should take some cues from her Mother's side (Glimmer and Angella)

Kaine the Fallen son of He-Man now calling himself SkelThor has absorbed SOME of the Power of Grayskull when he was branded with the Gray Skull mark. This gives him the ability to summon alternate Armors like his father, aunt and Great Uncle.

The shadow Armor can withstand damage
and SkelThor can focus his dark light powers
into shadow blades that pop out of his
wrists. Think Marvel's Wolverine.

The only Armor I thought of at the moment is vaguely inspired by the Movie, but not enough to raise any copyright alarms.
He too should get new Armors to compete with the Family.
Same thing for Skeleteen (whose Armors are based on Skeletor Armors but with 90s XTREEEEEEM! on them.)
and Keldra (whose Armors should be Tech-Based)