I have a little ritual at SDCC where I go and say goodbye to some of the coolest prototypes and revealed figures from my favorite lines. I understand how corny that sounds, but it’s nice to revisit the booths when the crowds are gone and really analyze the figures. This year was no different and I spent an especially long time at the Mattel booth with the awe-inspiring Snake Mountain.
Yes, the size of this playset (which may change, according to Mattel) is crazy huge, but I’m most impressed by the great integration of the Filmation Snake Mountain design into the toy toy design. It’s thrilling to see the lava falls, coiling snake and massive thorns that characterized the Filmation Snake Mountain. It is also a lot of fun seeing all the toy details sharply sculpted and painted with modern style. The “face” of the Snake Moutain playset seemed goofy to me as a kid, but I love the look of it sculpted here with all of the rough hewn rock detail. I can’t wait to see more of the interior. The throne is a nice tease and I could also spy the table often seen in Skeletor’s Filmation throne room.
One of the Skeletor variants I’ve actually wanted for a while was a Filmation style skull with articulated jaw. Now, we aren’t getting the articulated jaw, but what they have shown looks pretty amazing. All of the prototypes shown look like they have stepped right out of the cartoon. I was thinking I may have a shelf just for these because they are graphically striking and different enough from the regular figures. I’m also really happy to get the onion-headed Evil-Seed!
The collector’s choice line is a great continuation of the current MOTUC line, with fan demanded, but more obscure characters. I also think it was a very cool idea to split the subs up into mini-subs to make them a little more attractive to the more niche groups. Vultak, Masque and Despara were three top wants of mine and they look perfect. I didn’t notice at first that Vultak’s Horde crossbow had a bird theme. Nice touch. I’m not that big a fan of New Adventures, but Crita and Darius look really neat. Darius has a super-detailed armor and Crita’s purple skin and ’80s rockstar hair pop. Did we ever find out where the anti-He-Man is going to be released?
Finally, the Thundercats line-up is stunning. I can’t believe how good these protos look. I heard from people at the con that the characters seemed a little ‘thick’, but I love the aesthetic here and having them match up in size and style with MOTUC is a dream come true. The revelation of Mumm-Ra’s digital sculpt makes me think they are going to be spending a good amount on new tooling, so I’m not worried about too much parts re-use.