Tag Archives: matty collector

May 16 2012

Matty Never Fails to Disappoint…

No feature today. Work really kicked my ass over the last couple of days, I got home late yesterday and bone tired, and I didn’t get any time to do the editing on what would have been today’s piece. Instead, I’m just going to bitch about Matty a bit before crawling into bed with a bottle of something.

So, yeah, yesterday was Matty Sale Day. Besides some Masters of the Universe Classics figures that I don’t care about, its finally time for Club Infinite Earths to kick in. Yeah, yeah… it was supposed to kick in back in April, but Matty couldn’t get their shit together so they bumped it back another month to May. Only it seems like it wasn’t enough because here we are on the day of the May Sale and Jay Garrick Flash still ain’t ready to ship. Right now they’re estimating a 5 to 7 day delay and that subscribers will have their figures ship out first, but at this point, I just don’t care any more. It looks like a great figure, I’ll get it when I get it, and frankly I’m just too tired right now to go on and on about Matty’s incompetence and how they expect all kinds of commitments from their subscribers, but in the end, they’re not obligated to follow through on anything they promised.

It seems as if MOTUC was affected as well. All this comes hot on the heels of Matty announcing that the Dana/Zuul figure statue that was promised to be available as one of the planned figures in the now defunct Ghostbusters line has been re-purposed as a 2012 SDCC Exclusive. Oh, Matty, do you ever get tired of kicking your faithful customers in the gonads? Ah well, we’ll likely still get a chance to pick one of those up via the website and after the Con. And chances are this one won’t turn yellow a few months later like those $70 Stay Puft figures, right?

As for Jay Garrick… normally, I don’t get my monthly figures until the very last day or so of the month of the sale. Now I can probably not expect to get Flash until sometime in June. Either way, I’ll be featuring him here as soon as I can get him.

May 2 2012

Voltron: Yellow Lion by Mattel

And as promised… here we go with the second building block needed to construct the ridiculously huge Voltron figure. Yesterday we looked at Hunk, now its time to check out his ride, the Yellow Lion.

Out of the white mailer box, and my first impression is awe at just how big this guy is. I was suitably impressed with the Red Lion’s size, but Yellow Lion is considerably larger. The toy comes in the same style of window packaging as Red Lion. Its not really fair to call this thing a box as about three-quarters of it is made up of clear plastic with just a cardboard back and base. The back panel shows the toy in action along with some of its features. You also get a shot of Voltron showing the Yellow Lion as his left leg. The lion stands on an illustrated cardboard tray with clear plastic supports that holds him in an action pose. A little careful clipping with some scissors can free the lion from the base without mangling the package. The overall presentation here is pretty amazing, as the toy looks absolutely fantastic in the package. But with all that having been said, I still would have preferred a standard regular old box. I’m storing all my lions in their packaging until I get them all together, and these window “boxes” aren’t exactly easy to store.
In hand, Yellow Lion is a nice, big and sturdy toy. His body is one solid piece, as opposed to Red Lion, which has the elbow joint in the middle. This along with his bigger size just makes Yellow Lion feel more substantial and solid. The rounded hump that makes up his shoulders also gives him less of a boxy look and his head is more naturally positioned than his Red brother. Granted, all of this design element comes from the fact that the two Lions form different limbs. I’ve got nothing against Red Lion, its a great looking toy, I just think that the leg design makes for a better looking Lion vehicle and I suspect that will follow through when we eventually look at the Green and Blue Lions.
The coloring here is nice and vibrant and relies mostly on the color of the plastic, rather than a lot of paint apps. Again, Mattel went with a pale grey colored plastic for the legs, and while some will take issue with it, I’m glad they went this route. Technically these pieces are supposed to be a chromed, steel finish. Some argue that white would have been better. I’d rather they be distinguished from the white parts of the Lion’s face and so grey works fine for me.
If you remember my look at the Red Lion, you’ll recall I had issues with the leg articulation, and the same holds true with the Yellow Lion. I’m happy with the strong ratcheting joints at the tops of the legs and the ankles are fine too. Its the middle joints, which only bend backward on the back legs and forward on the front legs that really bugs me. It really limits the poses you can get. Other articulation includes two hinges in the tail, and the head can pivot up and down and rotate left and right at the neck. The jaws also open and he can hold his blade weapon in his mouth. If you flip the lion over you can see a button on his belly. Pressing this while he’s folded up into the leg mode will automatically convert him back into lion mode.
Take the key that came with the Hunk figure (or any pen or pencil) and you can unlock the cockpit and open the Yellow Lion’s back. While Red Lion’s cockpit splits open, Yellow Lion’s just swings open on a hinge in the back. Its a lot less sophisticated, but the idea is the same. Inside you get the same sort of cockpit with a sculpted chair and some stickers for instruments. Hunk fits inside, but the arm rests make the back of the seat too narrow for him to lean all the way back into it. As a result, it feels like the cockpit was designed for one of the thinner figures. Nonetheless, you can still get him in there and close the hatch with room to spare.
It may sound like I have a lot of issues with this toy, but when all is said and done, I’m still plenty happy with how he turned out. As much as I liked Red Lion, I think Yellow is a better lion, because the design of his transformation allowed him to be. He has that same great nostalgic 80’s toy feel as Red. I don’t think its something Mattel was expressly going for, but it just kind of happened. And while I didn’t shoot any pictures of him in his leg mode (I’m saving all that for the end), when I converted him, I really began to appreciate just how big the Black Lion is going to have to be, let alone Voltron. Sure, when you consider Yellow Lion and Hunk set me back about seventy bucks with shipping, it seems rather steep, but I still think it’ll all be worth it in the end. Besides, try hunting this set on Ebay and you’re already looking at paying over $100 in a lot of cases.

And now begins the wait for the next Lion. Sigh… it’s going to be a long year.
May 1 2012

Voltron: Hunk (Yellow Lion Pilot) by Mattel

April marked the second release in the year-long journey that we Voltron fans will need to traverse in order to finally complete our colossal Voltron figure. Last time, I checked out both the figure and the lion on the same day. This time, I’m going to be a prick and spread them out over two. Hey, April was a long long month packed with content, so I’m not making any apologies. Today we’re going to look at the Hunk figure and then tomorrow we’ll check out the Yellow Lion itself.

As with Lance and the Red Lion, both the figure and the lion come in the same white shipper box, but inside they are each packaged separately. You may remember there were some hiccups with the Red Lion concerning shipping notifications and whatnot. This time things went a little smoother. I got billing notifaction a few days before the sale and I think I got my shipping notification the Saturday before the sale. Sure, I didn’t actually receive anything until the last day of the month, but hey… baby steps, Matty… baby steps.
Once again, the figure comes in a very cool, attractive, and collector friendly box, rather than a card that you have to rip open. When I got the first figure, Lance, I presumed all the figure boxes would be red, but as you can see with Hunk, Matty is matching the figure’s boxes with the color of their lions. Very cool! The front of the package has a nice piece of character artwork with a window cut out to show the figure, the spare head with helmet, and part of the key stand. The back panel shows a full photo of the figure, the key operating as a figure stand, the figure being put into the Yellow Lion cockpit, and the various parts of the Blazing Sword. You also get a little blurb about the Yellow Lion. This packaging is just about perfect, as far as I’m concerned. The only thing I would change would be to add the Voltron logo and the figure’s name on the side of the box, so you can store them in a bookshelf. Then again, I guess the color coding allows you to recognize which figure is which.
Open the box and slide out the tray and you can see everything you’re getting, including the handguard for the Blazing Sword. I’ve got no gripes about the figure packaging. It looks fantastic, and most importantly, collectors can remove and replace the figures and accessories, without mussing anything up. When I can finally build Voltron, I’ll likely keep the figures boxed, so I’m a happy camper.
If you checked out my look at the Lance figure, then you pretty much know what to expect with Hunk here. The figure features the same simple, animated style of sculpt, that works very well. I really like Hunk’s head sculpt as it captures the look of the animated character, right down to the little upturned nose and his tustled hair. Appropriately, Hunk is also a slightly more heavy build than Lance. I think Mattel might even have helped Hunk to shed a few pounds, but the figure still looks pretty accurate. The paintwork is quite clean and the tiny tampo emblem on his chest looks great. Hunk’s laser pistol and holster are both sculpted in one piece, and by the time we’re done looking at all the Voltron figures, you’ll likely grow tired of me pointing out that at this price point, we should have got a removable gun and a functional holster. And yes, I’m going to say it every single time!
The spare head can be swapped out to display Hunk with his helmet on. The helmet and visor look great, but the rest of the face is a softer sculpt than the one that comes on the figure. His mouth isn’t nearly as clearly defined, and its certainly disappointing when compared to the extra head that came with Lance.
You get the same points of articulation here as with the Lance figure. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, and knees. The hip joints have something similar to the DCUC joint, giving the legs universal movement at the hips. At fifteen bucks, some ankle and wrist articulations should have been in order, but I guess Hunk is right in line with the cribbed articulation we’re going to be seeing from a lot of 3 3/4″ action figures this summer. Yep, I’m calling you out, Hasbro.
As for the other accessories, I don’t have much to say about the handguard for the Blazing Sword. Its certainly a nice looking piece, and like Lance’s handgrip, it gives you an idea of just how big this sword is going to be. But until the sword is complete, its tough to say anything else about it. The key is a welcome piece to use as a stand, and it is also used to unlock the cockpit of the Yellow Lion. As with Lance’s key, I don’t think its asking too much to have a sticker on each side, because the other side is just left blank. Once again, Matty, if you’re selling 3 3/4″ figures at this price point, you need to step it up just a notch.

So, all in all, not too many surprises with Hunk. The packaging is awesome and the figure itself is perfectly fine. Even my quibble about the soft sculpt on the alternate head isn’t a huge sticking point for me. On the one hand, I think Matty could have delivered a better figure for the money, but then these are rather limited collectibles and what we got isn’t bad at all. I guess when you come down to it, my issues aren’t with what we got, but rather what we should have gotten, such as slightly better articulation and a removable gun.

I’ll be back tomorrow to check out the Yellow Lion!
Mar 29 2012

You have failed me again, Starscream… I mean… Matty Collector.

After flubbing up the Voltron Club Lion Force subscription by a) Not charging us when we were supposed to be charging, and b) Not letting us know whether or not our subs would even be processed until the day of the sale, and c) Not following through on their commitment to ship subber’s toys before everyone else’s, one might have wondered what was going to go wrong with the Club Infinite Earths subscription. Well, wait no more, because here it is…

DC Universe Fans [suckers],
                

It’s been a long time coming [Yes, it has been a long time. Long enough for us to get this right and yet we still couldn’t!] and DC Universe Club Infinite Earths is now on the horizon! Golden Age Flash will be the first figure released and we’ve just confirmed we’ll receive our shipment in mid-May. [Yes it was supposed to be April. Sorry, we didn’t whip our Chinese children slave labor force hard enough and they fell behind on their quotas.] That means the club will launch in May instead of April. For subscribers, we’ll begin processing orders when the shipment is received (ETA is currently 5/12) and sending them out about 10 business days later. [So, not only are we delaying the launch a month, we won’t even make good on our commitment to ship subbers’ figures before day of sale purchases. Ha Ha!] Although the club is starting in May rather than April, you’ll still get the nine figures you signed up for in 2012; we’ll just double up on figures for one month in the fall [We sincerely hope this fucks up your budgeting!} (you’ll have plenty of notice before it happens).  
                      

One thing of note: your club order will not be eligible for combined shipping until June, which is the first “renewal” month. [We could have changed this as a courtesy for your inconvenience, but that would deny us an opportunity to fuck you over on our ridiculously slow and expensive shipping!] You may recall that the first month a subscription order ships, it has to ship separately, then beginning with the second month it will be combined with your other subscriptions. [Ha Ha, fuck you!]
Okay, enough business — on to the good stuff! At press time, here is the release schedule (as always, subject to change) [LOL! That’s our way of saying all the information in this email is worthless!]                  

May: Golden Age The Flash
June: Atrocitus (monthly figure) & Metron (club-exclusive)
July: Starman (monthly figure) & Rocket Red (club quarterly figure)
August: Mirror Master
September: Black Mask        
          

Even though he won’t arrive until May, our Golden Age The Flash figure will certainly be worth waiting for! The original scarlet speedster, Jay Garrick, will come with his vac-metalized signature helmet and, like all figures in the line, will feature great details and full articulation. [Does anyone else find it ironic that The Flash will arrive a month late? We do!]    
           

We’ll post updates at MattyCollector.com as we get closer and have more information. [Be sure to stop by, so we can stick the pre-order offer for that ridiculous, shitty and overpriced Back to the Future hoverboard in your face!] For now, you can look forward to an amazing year packed with long-awaited true collector characters! Thank you for being a loyal customer – we appreciate your business. [Because who else buy you would let us fuck you over and over again and keep coming back?]

– Matty  
              

Apparently that was edited for content in a very childish and possibly slightly drunk manner. So, the long and short of it is the whole subscription will be delayed for a month, and subbers will get hit twice in one month for at least two monthly figures. Once again, Mattel seems incapable of following through on any of their commitments to subscribers. It seems to me like they could have at least shipped the Exclusive figure, which we already paid for, in April in lieu of the actual monthly figure, but nope.
Now, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal for me. Waiting another month isn’t going to kill me, nor is having to buy two figures in one month. But, I feel sorry for collectors who actually have all three subs because between this and all the other shannagans that Matty pulls with the release schedules, its really difficult to budget for these figures and being able to budget for them should be one of the advantages of the whole sub service.

No, it just goes back to what I said when Matty screwed up the Voltron sub. Its been almost a year since they did open enrollment for subscriptions. That’s how much time lead time they had to get this right, and they still couldn’t do it. And yet this is the same company that blathers on in their emails about contracts and obligations regarding their subscriptions, which to Matty is apparently a one-way street. Its a joke. But this is nothing new. For a while I was glad to see DC Universe Classics go the route of subscription because it meant I didn’t have to hunt the figures down anymore and I didn’t have to pony up to buy a whole case at one time. But having to deal with Matty and Digital River on any level really sticks in my craw as a matter of principal.

If I weren’t so busy this week, I’d be tempted to cancel the rest of this week’s DC Universe Classics features in protest, but I wouldn’t have time to brew up anything else, so I guess I’ll press on.