There’s a large part of me that wants to see a new Thundercats line done by Mattel. Then there is a small but very vocal part of me that doesn’t. Why? Mattel has been proven to backtrack on what they say about how a line will be made. In My opinion, they whiffed on Webstor. One of the main reasons fans don’t want to see action features, is due to articulation restruction (in other words, you would lose significant articulation in Lion-O’s arm with the lever action the old 80’s line came with). However, the action feature for Webstor was in the backpack. Why could this not have been done??? I look at Snout Spout and there’s a reservoir inside the 80’s figure which, with a button press, he shot water out of his snout. Where would there be articulation interference here? You could make him a packpack that is the reservoir, and have a connection to a tube in the back of his head which runs through an articulated snout, which means you could have him spray water in multiple directions. Where is the problem with this?
It is little nuances like this that have, to this point, kept the MOTUC line from being a truely fantastic line. Don’t get me wrong, on a scale of say 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, it’s a solid 7.5 to 8. But things like finding a way to give Battle Armor He-Man the spinning damaged armor plate the original had instead of the tedious nonsense you have to go through to change that out, would have really pushed this line into the 9’s, with Mattel’s suspect card & bubble quality along with some very minor paint misshaps, and the website slipping into a coma at about 11 am on the 15th of every month the only things keeping it from a solid 10.
Now, if you managed to make it through that short novel above, I would be perfectly happy (figure quality wise) with either Mattel or NECA getting the line, and I really hope one of them does. I would probably lean towards Mattel because there’s at least the possibility that if the line does well, Vehichles and Playsets could eventually be included. But, fans that want there to be a homage to the original Mumm-Ra/Lion-O with light up eyes, to see any of the Berzerkers or Rampagers get made, or to finally get their hands on the ever elusive and controversial Mad Bubbler, are going to have to hound and hound and hound Mattel right from the start. Else you’ll get “Thundercats Classics”. At this point I would gladly take that, but what the line really would need is its own identity. That will come with fan demands to whoever ‘hopefully’ gets it.
EDIT: my paragraph breaks are not working, sorry for the one giant paragraph. Going to try some HTML code to fix it, crossing fingers…
Personally, from what I have heard from the Mattel/MOTU fiasco, I don’t want to even think about them making a new line of ThunderCats figures. NECA, on the other hand, would have my full support.
(side trip time) I am an adult male with an Xbox 360, and one of my favorite games is Gears of War. I have played through the campaign multiple times in both games so far (Gears 1 and Gears 2) and spent countless hours playing the multiplayer side as well.
(coming back to point) NECA has been making figures from the Gears of War francise since around April of '08. In under 2 years, they have released 29 individual figures, with an additional 2 in an exclusive 2-pack. That’s a little over 1 figure per month, and they have at least another 5 coming out in the not too distant future.
I have been collecting the series, and I must say there is a lot of detail in these figures. And as the line has progressed, they have gotten even more detailed and better articulation. The only bad thing is that they are having to scale down the biggest figures to keep them small enough to fit in the package and to limit the cost. But that results in the biggest, newest figures in the series being the same price the first figures were.
But, then again, I don’t think there would be any vehicles or sets if NECA were to make a/the line.
@mcss aerocoupe
I’m not familiar with NECA other than the figures I have seen. From a quality standpoint they appear to be superior to Mattels and border on Boskoes custom figure quality (I don’t own any of either of these company’s figures, just basing this on visual comparison from their websites). That being said, I don’t think NECA has near the funding to throw behind a line that Mattel would, and I absolutely agree that I don’t think there would even be a chance of vehicles or playsets should NECA get the liscense. That at least would be possible if Mattel did (although there are none in the MOTUC line yet, they have hinted in several Q&A’s that if the line continues to do well we could see vehicles, and if the movie ever gets made and does well, possibly a Castle Grayskull).
Also, I’m not aware if NECA only does poseable, fully articulated figures, or if they include action features in any of theirs. I’m torn on the action features because that truly distinguished that line from MOTU in the 80’s in that, every figure had an action feature to it. I guess I could live without the trigger features in the main figures, IF Mattel would offer action features on the Berzerkers, Driller, a working Mad Bubbler, working Laser Saber figs, working Thunderwings Lion-O and Luna Lasher Mumm-Ra, etc.
Of Mattel, Hasbro, Jakks, Bandai, and any other mega toy company out there, Mattel is the one I would hope the most would get it. That being said, if they do…I really really really don’t want clones of MOTUC figs just repainted as Thundercats with a few new head and weapon sculpts. I want that line to have its own identity, not just be “Thundercats Classics”.