ASK MATTY: MATTY ANSWERS 2/16/10

Matty took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions.

1) Part of the charm of MOTUC’s reusing parts and painting them differently is to make them look unique while they STILL look vintage, and from photos circulating the ‘net, replacing the baby blue with the new silvery paint on Evil Lyn and her staffs seems to make her appear more “Anti-Teela”, and less distinctive as vintage Evil Lyn. Secondly, her new eye paint aps changes her facial expression completely, losing the thick black and tight angles for her eyelashes/eyeline and the heavy black around the eyeball for a thinner, wider, and more rounded eyeline, now making her look “surprised” rather than a “sultry stare”. Lastly, the change in point of separation for her removable crystal ball (now the entire top half of her small wand vs only the first ring) sadly alters and ruins the entire retro-style design of the longer 200X-influenced staff as the 4 Horsemen originally designed. After Moss Man’s, Evil Lyn’s drastic and obvious changes and is a new trend that’s unsettling to many fans of the Four Horsemen’s original work. Can you comment on why these changes to the 4 Horsemen’s awesome designs were made in Evil Lyn, both in color and weapon design?

The Crystal Ball was completely designed by the Horsemen - removable headpiece and all. So what you are seeing is the Horsemen’s design - we didn’t change anything about it!

2) For Mattel’s toy engineers: it has to be asked again. Recent DCUC toys can’t look up or down. For MOTUC, there is RECENT talk of undoing Teela’s fine neck articulation to a neck swivel as there are somehow ONLY two options to fix her thin neck barbell problem for popping heads. Outside of a Barbie doll, why is a ball neck executed using a barbell system in the first place? Countless Star Wars, Marvel, GI Joe, and Japanese toys half the size and scale of Mattel’s toys and with even thinner necks than Teela or any other female figure released to date have a fully-molded (immovable) ball at the top of the neck where a head with a wider opening pops on and off effortlessly and moves in every direction very well. Can such a simple solution already used by various toy companies please be considered?

You will see improved neck articulation on DCUC starting with Wave 12.

3) With DCUC we’ve seen the teenage boy body type. With Wonder Girl being announced in Wave 14, will we finally be seeing a teenage female body type or will she be the standard female size?

She will be the first teen female with a new buck!

4) From internet reviews, the MOTUC stands appear both excellently crafted AND give us a level of customizability for various standing positions, so first, thank you! The biggest issue I find with these toys is that the ankle joint become weak due to their weight. Can we expect to get additional stand parts down the line for further customization, like taller Grayskull walls, weapon racks or clear waist clips coming up from the base to hold them in place? You’ve created an incredible stand system with holes placed to achieve these easy additions, creating potential dioramas if interconnected properly!

Yes, we do have plans for other stands and set pieces for MOTUC figures down the line! It’ll likely be about one a year with the stands being first.

5) Speaking to toy engineers at Comic Con about the hardness of the plastics on some of the long capes or long hair on wrestling figures and superheroes toys, it is my understanding that a factory can fit several smaller parts of a toy (head, arms, hands, feet and/or weapons) in one mold so as not to waste space in a given mold. The same plastic is then used for all pieces in that particular mold. Either for budgetary reasons or shortcuts by the factory unbeknownst to the company, sometimes factories will include a cape or hair piece in with the same mold as parts needing tougher plastics like the heads or limbs or accessories. I currently buy and love the MOTUC, DCUC, and your new WWE toys, and I see a similar possibility issue across the board for this reason. Can there please be a new Mattel edict that ALL capes, long hair, tunics, robes, loincloths, skirts, or any other articulation-inhibiting draping be cast with the plastic used for DCUC Mantis’ cape, one that the factories have to adhere to?

The material used for Mantis’ cape is actually a lot more expensive to produce compared to the thicker capes. Mantis required this additional cost to maintain articulation due to the unique nature of his cape attaching at the wrists. We will look at using the thin material when possible, but it is simply not something we can afford to include universally in order to keep figures at a low retail price.