Toy Bender

It looks like Mattel emulating Hasbro’s openness when it comes to answering questions from fan sites. Somehow this missed my radar, but they’ve been having Q&As with some toy collecting websites just like Hasbro does. I collected what I could find and am sharing the best ones here much like I do for Hasbro’s Star Wars and G.I. Joe questions. I do this as a service to you. Well, I also do this because it’s kind of easy to do, but let’s put the focus more on you.

From what I could find, only a few sites have questions for Mattel, so there wasn’t a lot to pick from. Mattel really doesn’t have a lot of properties that make fanboys crazy, so you’ve got to figure that the interest isn’t going to be as high for this sort of thing. Most of the questions are going to be about DC Universe toys in some form with maybe a He-Man one thrown in for good measure and you can only ask, “When is He-Man coming back?” so many times.

Toy News International did have a good question about the future availability of DC Classic varient figures:

TNI: Overall fan reaction to the first two waves of 6� DC Classics figures seems fairly positive. However, some people have expressed concern that they will have trouble finding the variants. What ratio can we expect to see these variants packed in?

Mattel: We are keeping that info tight under wraps. These are chase figures after all. They will be easier to get than the clear Man-Bat at Comic Con however. I can tell you that the Superman Red and Superman Blue in Wave 2 is a 50/50 split. This is not a chase figure but rather a variant.

Oh great, we finally got a solid answer on the Superman Blue and Red figures that I’m sure everyone will want to own because of their completely dog shit comic appearances.

Toy News International also asked about the amount of Superman and Batman figures in DC Classics:

TNI: There was a Batman figure in wave 1 and a Superman figure in wave 2. Can we expect to see a different version for these two characters to show up in every wave of DC Classics?

Mattel: Both Batman and Superman are important icons to the DC Universe. While they will not be in every single wave, you can expect to see variants of these heavy hitters where and when appropriate. When we do a Superman or Batman in this line expect it to be an all new and different version of the character and one fans have been asking for. (not just a repaint)

Mattel’s answer should have been, “We’re going to make Superman and Batman figures like Marvel milks Wolverine for all he’s bloody worth, and then some.”

For those of you wondering if Mattel is going to bring He-Man back from the dead yet again, someone Toy News International got to the question for you:

TNI: You showed off a rather cool-looking Masters of the Universe prototype figure at the San Diego Comic Convention, and news of a pending Masters of the Universe movie in the works continues to grow. How long must MOTU fans suffer before we hear some concrete word on what the future of this brand holds?

Mattel: MOTU fans will continue to suffer as long as the evil Skelator has control of the Ram Stone.

Okay, just kidding. We know fans have high expectations for MOTU product and as soon as we have news to announce know we will do so with all the Power of Grayskull behind us. Everyone at Mattel is very excited about the future of MOTU and we want to give fans product that is of the highest quality. Good product does take time. Patience will be rewarded.

Figures.com also had some questions from Mattel that are worth checking out, especially this one:

Figures.com: Mattel mentioned at Comic Con plans for six unique “The Dark Knight” figures in a 6″ scale for the film’s release in 2008. Does Mattel plan to release similar figures in the same scale from previously released Batman films and which characters can fans expect to see on store shelves?

Mattel: We will be revealing just who these characters are in the next few months. Expect a few surprise as well as some old friends.

Can I be the only one holding out hope of a new Michael Keaton Batman film inspired figure?

Well, that’s about it. Until Mattel starts getting more nerd properties, don’t expect to see a massive deluge of questions any time soon. Sigh… these things make my life so much easier.

toy, toy collecting, action figure, super hero, dc, comic book, batman, superman