Mattel’s Toy Fair show was extremely underwhelming.
The WWE figures were quite disappointing overall. A couple nice figures…it’s nice they are doing optional hands/heads for the Elites but as far as character selection goes there wasn’t many that haven’t been made before. The only ones I can think of are Mabel and Pat Patterson…
The DC figures were quite bland. Hard to get excited for these figures considering it has already been announced McFarlane Toys are taking over the DC collectors figures.
Hasbro really stole the show with their Marvel Legends, Transformers, Star Wars and even Power Rangers.
Super 7’s MOTU were great and the announced TMNT figures is really exciting.
Diamond Select Toys had some pretty great figures, especially Bruce Lee.
Neca, Storm Collectibles, Mezco, Playmates all had some amazing products on show.
Yet another big toy show and basically nothing about Thundercats.
Like I have said before it’s getting harder to care about the lack of Thundercats. Do people want good Thundercats figures, yes.
But while all the other companies stepping up their game and releasing other products will people still have the same excitement when something is finally announced for Thundercats?
Considering the general response to the awful Thundercats Roar cartoon I doubt Mattel are bank on launching a Classics line when it airs.
I really hope another company can get the Thundercats licence and make proper Thundercats figures.
I know some people are against the idea of starting over but it’s progress. Look at when Mattel got the WWE licence and Hasbro took over Marvel Legends. Mattel’s figures are vast improvements over Jakks and Hasbro has done amazing continuing and upgrading Toybiz’s Marvel Legends.
Mattel’s and Bandai’s Lion-O were far from perfect. Both had good and bad points. Bandai’s had better articulation and clawshield while Mattel had nice sculpting and paint but too short and under articulated.
Whatever company would get the licence would have two good examples to know what to improve on to make superior Thundercats.
Yeah…if we actually do get another line, I have no doubt it will start over from square 1. I had a theory that McFarlane Toys was going to do them, but that was obviously wrong. FORTNITE style bucks would have been fine with me.
Truthfully, I was totally cool with both the Mattel versions and the Bandai ones. I just want SOMEBODY to stick with them!
Hopefully with the WB deal McFarland can get the Thundercats licence.
Remember the McFarlane/WB deal is very recent so maybe they will have something to show and announce at SDCC.
Todd has said he wants to make the best DC action figures that have ever been made so he will be wanting to top the DC Universe Classics Mattel made etc. Consider how generic and most of those figures turned out I think I he will easily be able to make the best DC comics inspired figures.
I liked aspects of both the Bandai and Mattel figures. My main complaint with Mattel was scale. I get they want to re-use the same buck but they needed to make the figures the correct height. After all it was a collectors toy line yet the mass retail WWE line are able to make all the different wrestlers the correct size to each other.
The most annoying thing is Mattel’s silence. It would be some much better if they would just out rightly say they are working on it or lost the licence etc instead of leaving us not knowing anything.
Truthfully, I would rather see McFARLANE or JAKKS PACIFIC get the license. MATTEL certainly makes great figures, but they have to want to make them.
Heck, I was even hoping the 'Cats would show up in MCX Heroes!
It’s amazing how many times T-Cats have been started, but then abandoned. I really wish I liked those cutesy, cartoony style figures with big, stylized heads, but that’s just not my thing. And I don’t collect expensive statues.
It seems so easy, doesn’t it? I mean there is a Jason figure from Friday the 13th part 5. There are Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation figures. As in multiples. There was a whole line of Dark Crystal figures. Yet we don’t even have a complete cast of 4 adult ThunderCats from BanDai or Mattel or anyone else.
Saw in JayC video about McFarlane that WB was open to any suggestions from McFarlane…I wonder if WB would be open to letting them make Thundercats…now that we see the kind of figures that can be made based on the Fortnite figs…any thoughts?
With Super 7 doing the Classics style MOTU, Conan, Toxic Avenger and now TMNT I must admit it would be pretty cool to have Thundercats continue in the same scale.
But after Mattel’s last attempt I would kind of be all for McFarlane or another company to produce the figures of the core heroes and villains.
We don’t really need a huge deep line of characters.
We don’t even need all the characters that had vintage LJN figures.
Even just a line of a dozen figures would be enough. And if they could make more after that it would be great.
Lion-O with Snarf
Tygra
Cheetara
Panthro
Wilykit and Wilykat 2 pack
Mumm-Ra with Ma-Mutt
Mumm-Ra the Ever Living
Ssslithe
Jackalman
Monkian
The problem is it’s still a few more months of silence from Mattel and WB and the fans not knowing what is going on.
Toy Fair has past and collectors have already been wowed by other companies.
By the time WB/Mattel do announce something with Thundercats the majority of collectors may not be that interested.
Surely from a marketing perspective it would make more sense to announce something and try and build excitement for the Thundercats brand.
I certainly don’t speak for everybody, but I would have been more than satisfied with stand-up cards featuring concept art. Or at a bare minimum, a card that read “Announcement Coming Soon!”
Yes much like Super 7’s TMNT announcement at Toy Fair. It wasn’t much but it has ignited a lot of excitement and discussion about the line. And in doing so has even created interest for their other lines.
Even back around SDCC Diamond Select Toys made a brief announcement they were making Bruce Lee toys. Not quite as exciting as Thundercats but people were still excited about the toys and then at Toy Fair they showed the Bruce Lee figures and they are spectacular.
If Mattel or WB even made a slight announcement there would be a drastic change to the amount of activity on the toy threads of this forum.
So NECA is expanding their classic TMNT line so I’m confused how S7 is going to do one at the same time…
Anyway, I agree that the silence speaks volumes. We are all tired of waiting for the next big event aka the next big disappointment. There is something to say for a negative aura put on the brand.
As far as I know the deal with Super 7 and NECA is quite unique.
Playmates have the master licence so no other company can be on the “toy” shelves.
NECA’s TMNT toys are exclusive to Target and not being sold in the toy section so not interfering with Playmates.
As for Super 7 I don’t believe their TMNT figures will be availabe at retail either and only available through there website and BBTS much like MOTU Classics. So again not interfering with Playmates.
Having said that I believe Playmates master licence only covers the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Turtles cartoon while NECA and Super 7 are making figures based on the classic cartoon, comic and live action movies.
It reminds me of a Batmobile that I bought a few years ago, and learning why it wasn’t ‘allowed’ to have moving wheels. It was actually pretty interesting.