http://www.toyark.com/news/marvel-toy-news-4/marvel-legends-series-3-releasing-in-september-5795/

Just a quick heads-up. Apparently Marvel released the date over their twitter feed. ToyArk ran the story, including the revealed cards for Punisher & Blade (a running change) as well as an X-Force Deadpool which I wasn't aware of. Hoping they do a standard color variant as I missed the limited 2pack release.

Apparently open flames aren't the only thing capable of changing the color of MattyCollector's giant 20" Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (based on the iconic last-second character from the original Ghostbusters movie) as at least figures are purportedly turning yellow with age.

As I'm personally unaffected (because I can put a price on this piece of nostalgia and said price is a lot less than the $70+ that Mattel wanted), I was completely unaware of this mildly humorous (but likely aggravating) issue. At the same time it's one of those weird stories that just needs to be shared.

Mattel's explanation is for Yellow Marshmallowgate is follows:
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figure was fully tested and approved prior to being offered for sale. The figure passed all standard product tests, as well as a specialized test specific to the new foam material used. The yellowing some figures have experienced didn’t appear until a number of months after the product's release. The yellowing is due to an unforeseen chemical reaction between the paint and material used in its construction.

And being the stand-up guys that they are (and probably because the number of complaints is far greater than they let on), Mattel is offering a refund (cash only, no exchanges) for those affected with instructions depending on where the figure was bought:

[i]If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com for Pickup at SDCC
For orders that were placed during the voucher pre-sale and picked up at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price will be issued on the card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.

If You Purchased at the MattyCollector.com SDCC Booth
For those customers who purchased the figure directly at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will create a ticket and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a check for the original purchase price will be issued and mailed to you at the address you provided to the agent. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.

If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com During Our Post-SDCC Sale
For orders that were placed during the post-SDCC sale at MattyCollector.com and shipped directly to you, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price and shipping will be issued on the original card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.[/i]

Was anybody here actually affected? I recall Matty doing a follow-up sale involving a price drop as well as that one grab bag promotion which may have included them but I can't recall if anybody on-site has one of those big, yellow whales (or white whales, if unaffected by the issue).

Yes, it's going to be one of those...



Battle Cat: "Hi, I'm a Western character figure."
Dead Master: "And I'm an Eastern character figure. I..."



Battle Cat: "No! I'm going first! Don't make me eat you. Remember that I could just do the rest of this without you."



"So yeah, I come from an American cartoon called Masters of the Universe. Sometimes just known as He-Man."



"It's an action cartoon about big muscular guys beating up other big muscular guys. Because the West is all about being macho and violent."



"Even our women have muscles"



"Oh, could you guys hang on a second? This is important."



"Yeah, that's it..."



"You're really hitting the spot now. Just scratch a little harder. Right, now where was I? The cartoon started in the early '80s..."



"Oh god, where did you guys find that photo....?"



"This is so embarrassing... I can't believe I used to look like that."



Dead Master: "I think you were pretty cute."



Dead Master: "Who's a little cutey whooty?"



"STAY THE HELL OUTTA MY OLD PHOTOS!"





"At any rate, we were big. Bigger than that cartoon about Jesus. We gave children mindless entertainment AND nostalgictastic figures. Plus a live action movie which we don't like to talk about, mostly because I think I'm not in it."




"We are the West, hear us roar!"



"Tag, you're in."
Dead Master: "About time."



"My series, Black Rock Shooter, may not have the history that Masters does but we also print money. Hell, we had tons and tons of preorders for figures... well, BEFORE people actually saw what the show was like. Like many Eastern animations, we're occasionally accused of being about cute girls and fan service. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No muscles here! Small and girly is the way to go."



"Plus a little dark and creepy."



Both: "We couldn't be more different! But we do have one thing in common... we were made by companies specifically to sell merchandise!"



Kratos: "Hi, I'm a Western videogame character."
Cloud: "And I'm an Eastern videogame character."
Battle Cat: "Wait, another...? I thought we were just doing one."



"My name is Cloud. I'm slim and not very muscularly, but I'm broody and don't talk a lot so chicks think I'm deep. I have a complicated backstory and carry my scars on the inside. I like to sulk and mope in my free time. Basically I speak rarely and carry a big sword."



"I'm Kratos and I kill people. If you're in my way, you're dead. Hell, you're better off just running if you see me coming. Unless you're an attractive woman and the game hasn't featured its mandatory sex minigame yet. While I have a tragic backstory, I carry my scars on the outside as well as the ashes of my dead family. And, trust me, you don't want to be related to me..."



"I kinda have a bad track record there. A lot of relatives like dear ol' dad I'll go out of my way to kill but others are just mistakes. Simple, bloodthirstily stupid mistakes..."



"Unlike the pretty pansy over there, I'm big and brawny. I don't need a big sword, I'm confident in my two little blade thingies.... but I also have a big sword at times. Often at the beginning of games. And then I've got this other sword which gets bigger during some minigames...

And oh yeah, I'm the opposite of quiet. Half the game I'm probably shouting the antagonist's name. Makes it easy for gamers to keep track of who the villain is. Yeah! Western games! Machoviolence! Who the fuck even needs story when the disc is dripping with testosterone? Play Western games and you'll feel more manly! Manly, manly, MANLY!"

Cloud: "Eastern games---"
Kratos: "MANLY!"
Cloud: "--are often big on---"
Kratos: "MANLY!"
Cloud: "--things like---"
Kratos: "MANLY!"
Cloud: "...wish you were just a silent protagonist with a few snippets of dialogue."

Semi-old news but I just heard it a few days ago. Apparently Mattel decided to cancel the Young Justice toyline (both the 4" and 6" lines). And the hits keep coming, since during a Toyark Q&A with a Mattel rep we learned "We will not be continuing YJ on Matty.com in any scale (at this time)."

While I doubt this surprises anyone, it's still disappointing in that the ONLY 6" Superboy they gave us was the one-shot solar suit outfit rather than tee & jeans he not only wore throughout most of the series but also was his comics outfit! However, more disappointing is the fact that this essentially means we'll never see a 6" Miss Martian. Well, at least we got Artemis and the revamped Aqualad.

It's hard to describe all of the areas where the 6" line went wrong. First off, $20 seems a fairly high price for a 6" figure at retail (although it's only $4 over Mattel's other DC lines). This was presumably done to justify the overly large playsets they included which basically were throwaways anyway (albeit the Robin and Red Arrow roof top ones are decent). This different sized package meant that the figures weren't going on pegs meaning that they were less prominently displayed. I'm assuming that the playsets were probably done to appeal more to children (vs having CNC pieces) and the exaggerated box size might have been chosen to make it look like a better value but the choices still just seem so weird. Even odder is their choice to outright cancel the line rather than reconfigure the 6" offerings but since DCUC is basically leaving retail I can't say it's entirely unexpected (I'm also not sure why DCUC isn't just used as an umbrella for multiple lines, but I think that has to do with retailers' ordering practices)

The 4" line was really less of a surprise. It was the spiritual successor to the JLU line and had a bizarrely high price point ($10 single or $20 2pack) for figures that generally had maybe 5 points of articulation and overly simply sculpts. In the same Q&A the Mattel rep mentioned: "We tried a similar brand, JLU, in many form factors (singles, 3 packs, 4 packs and a 7pack of all new figures) and none sold well enough. This makes it a bit harder to continue YJ online. A toyline like YJ really takes Mom and Kid interest to keep it going. We cannot keep the line like YJ going on collector support alone. JLU proved this." This makes the decision to release the 4" YJ line in the similar fashion fairly confusing, to say the least. I'm just wondering what my local Target did with the 4" figures since I don't recall seeing them go on clearance yet I also don't recall seeing them in store on previous visits.

Congratulations are probably in order, since Mattel managed to fumble a toyline for a seemingly successful cartoon. Meanwhile Marvel, not to be outdone, has decided to cancel their Avengers: Earths' Mightiest Heroes cartoon which never had a toyline at all.

Why am I not hearing about it here?!?!

As you'll remember, Diamond Select picked up the name after the licensing lapsed. Apparently it's been confirmed to only apply to the name and, as such, we aren't going to get rub signs and it's really going to be an offshoot of the minimates line (which was previously stated, iirc). But the big news is that apparently it has a Fall 2012 release date attached now.

PCN did a video, along with the news. Apparently there was a C2E2 exclusive figure.



I guess it is somewhat bothersome that they're a different size and using a different sensibility but this new sculpt is kinda hot. The only thing that'll keep me from this line is probably pricing, since I already see mini-mates as something of a rip-off and they'll be priced at least accordingly.

Supposedly Takara will be bringing back Beastformers, though (which I could have sworn I heard mentioned here but I couldn't find it using the search function)

So much shit to wait for... I'm dying here, folks!

Not to be confused with Dragon Man. So just say no to confusing Draego-Man with Dragon Man.




At any rate, Draego-Mon is a recent addition to Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classic line. Hell, he's also a recent addition to Masters of the Universe series in general since he's an originally created character:




You'll notice that his bio curiously omits the fact that he's awesome. Clearly an oversight on Mattel's part.

That's assuming you can even read the bio. The image gets somewhat warped when uploading it to the host. If you've never picked up a MotUC, here's a glance at the rest of the packaging:



Mattel always includes a white mailer in the box to protect the packaging. They didn't start labeling the mailers until recently (which potentially caused an issue for people storing the figures).

The actual packaging consists of a card, a plastic bubble with lightning bolts seemingly painted on (because they have the power!), and two inserts. The top insert is the Masters logo (which a lot of people remove and use as a decoration for their Masters stuff) while the bottom is a double-layered brick design with the character's name on the front. I have never figured out why they bother double-layering all of it, since only the inner sides are visible anyway.

You've probably noticed that Draego-Man is so tall that half his head is covered. While he's a larger figure, he's actually not that much taller than other MotUCs and is a good deal shorter the ML Thunderball and the original Thundercats Classic stuff which I bring up just because of the whole value argument. And why am I talking about value? Well, it's because...



Draego-Man comes with a flaming sword of fire (too obscure of a reference?) and nothing else. Originally he was slated to also have a flame-tipped shield and a fiery whip but apparently Mattel opted to not include them to cut down on costs (supposedly a rep mentioned that they may appear in one of the weapon accessory packs).

While the character is a little larger, it really doesn't seem that the added size uses enough plastic or whatever to make it too expensive to include those other accessories.


(w/ MotUC King Grayskull)

I'm guessing there might be some added cost with the wings and tail but, regardless, it's disappointing to see these things on display then not with the finished product (although it's nowhere near as bad as the whole Nekron thing).

The sword is pretty neat. While they could have mixed the colors a little better it still looks cool... errr, hot, and stands out from the plain weapons we usually see.




While the character is a really bad ass looking dragon (or draconian, as these humanoid dragons are sometimes called), he still really seems to fit into the line. For starters, he has an obnoxiously large custom logo emblazoned onto his chest. Instead of pants, he's rocking a loincloth (probably keeps his scaly nads warm and cozy) and then an outrageous set of boots. Plus he has torso armor but barely anything on his arms and he makes use of a flamboyant color deco. Draego-Man's core design really looks like he would have easily fit into the line when it first premiered.

It's also just a generally cool design. Other than the over-the-top logo (and maybe the loincloth), the character could reasonably fit into a lot of fantasy displays. The oranges used on his wings look really awesome (although mine didn't get a clean app and doesn't fill some of the edges, it's barely noticeable). The figure's general balance is a little on the weak side but the tail compensates for it and there's a decent amount of foot pivot as well. Besides the usual range of articulation seen on a MotUC, Draego-Man's tail rotates and the wings are on ball-hinges. While the chestpiece looks like a torso joint, it's really just a soft-rubber add-on and there's a normal ab crunch underneath.

My only real complaints about this figure are that it didn't include mouth articulation, the tail isn't bendy (it just looks like that way), and that the head can't look straight up (which is bs on a flyer). So while the figure is pretty damn good, I wouldn't call it pretty damn great.

And, because nobody asked for it, here are some shots of ML Dark Wolverine / Daken:




For those interested, Draego-Man and other standard Masters of the Universe Classics characters sell for $22 on MattyCollector.com (which is $2 over club price). Generally these things sell out within 24~48 hours of a sale with a few popular characters selling out in under 5 minutes (coincidentally the amount of time it takes your page to load). If you ever miss a sale, there are always online retailers out there selling these figures at a mark-up. Alternatively Matty will occasionally reissue figures in addition to having a few larger stock sales a year dealing with withheld product (ie, extras made in case something is wrong with a sold figure).

I also did a long, rambling review on the figure. At twelve and a half minutes long I believe it's currently the longest Draego-Man review on Youtube but TheReviewRevolution will probably trump me whenever he gets around to posting his.