Official BLADE thread

[barrasco]

This figure turned out amaz...

...ingly awful.

Enjoy your bootlegish MOTUC folks!

[Captain Atkin]

Toyguru answered a question in the recent WTFWTK about why Blade's swords came unpainted.

3. Knowing Toyguru mentioned that slots and budget are limited, wouldn't it have been better to use the baby skeletor's slot for a long awaited vehicle (like Roton or same size vehicle) or a re-release with improved paint job on figures like Blade?


It doesn't quite work that way. The Baby Skeletor figure not only has a completely different budget from MOTUC 6???, but it is not comparable as a toy to your suggestion of a Roton in terms of available tooling, complexity and marketing goals (for the item). So the short answer is no, we can't use the resources that went into Baby Skeleor and have used them for something like a Roton. They are two completely different type of toys that are not swappable. Roton (or any vehicle for MOTUC) is a complex and complicated fully tool'd item, Baby Skeletor was a very low complex item that only needed a new head and rattle. Very low tooling in the end. Plus Baby Skeletor also served as a PR driver for the site to help reach non 6" collectors. The Roton would have appealed to the same existing audience as the 6" line, so strategically they are also not compatible or comparable form a business goal perspective.

Your second question about Blade, the answer is also no. We can't use one toy (any toy) to pay for any other toy. Each toy must come in on budget and deliver value to the customer for the price point. Blade has a ridiculous amount of deco on him (the armor). Every MOTUC toy delivers $26.00 worth of plastic and paint. We simply can't go over budget on any one figure or use another toy from another line to pay for more value on a separate toy. Every toy Mattel makes must deliver as much value as possible at the price point. We can't reduce deco or accessories on a non related toy to put above and beyond cost value into another item. It just doesn't work that way.

We have heard loud and clear that fans would prefer more deco on Blade's accessories, but that just was not possible without reducing deco on the armor or removing one of the accessories. This is why going forward we will raise prices every year starting in 2015 to try and get the price closer to the cost of the figures (in a world where production costs are rising faster than we can make figures! It is a factor we just can't control). All of 2014 is being sold at 2013 prices (per our promise to fans in 2012) which sometimes becomes a challenge. The only things you can reduce on a figure to get them on cost is paint or plastic and there just weren't many good options for a character like Blade who is defined by his accessories. We couldn't just cut one of the swords (which would have been easier than reducing deco to get him on cost). Blade needs his blades and a low deco version of his armor looked really bad. In the end, the best option to get Blade on cost was to reduce some deco on the swords. There wasn't any option available to release him over cost or to even change is SRP as he was already pre sold as part of the sub. (this is one of the reasons we like non sub items as we can put more into the toy by raising the price if needed).

[JimPansen]

Again not mentioned the possibility of cutting the whip( we all know why).

[barrasco]

Mr L has an affinity for whips.

[barrasco]

... served as a PR driver for the site to help reach non 6" collectors.

Oh... but only the 6" collectors were able to purchase the figure since it was only available to them through early access. Great reasoning from the same brilliant mind who thought a Filmation head for Filmation Hordak was unnecessary. It's great to know we have such a huge fan running the brand! I can only imagine the reaction of all those people who came to the site and realized they couldn't purchase a figure which was put there specifically for them... pretty cool huh?

... this is one of the reasons we like non sub items as we can put more into the toy by raising the price if needed.

Yes, like you did with Filmation Hordak.

[Mechanizor]

Does TG think that all of us are idiots like him, the deco on Blade was a brush/press on technique which doesn't cost shit! You cannot convince me that the huge wings tooling on the back of Draego-Man cost less than or equel to a simple paint deco on Blade!

[MIDOR]

I got Blade today off of EBay. Didn't want Blade. Still Don't want Blade. But I couldn't resist to get him so I could take pictures of him with the proof card of the original Blade.

You are seeing the front, back and authenticity.

Also posted on the dot org.