Fair enough... I conflated your post with the point Knight Damien was making - which was that there are too many snake men.    Apologies.

I got notified by FedEx that there was a package on its way a few days ago, and I had no idea what it could be. Turns out it was Sy-Klone! Didn’t get a single notification about it from Mattel, nor any indication on the order page. Go figure. He looks great!

The tracking number came up on my FedEx app but has had no movement for the three days it’s existed.

I just nabbed the MOTU packaging art book that came out a little ways back. Going through it... man. I'd forgotten just how much STUFF came out for this line, despite having a bunch of it. Definitely makes some of the holes in the collection feel even more glaring, though. Also reminds me how many figures appeared on packaging art that I wanted to see made that never were, and probably won't ever be.

Which, really, feels like a strange decision in and of itself. I mean, people wanted that winged-helmet Teela, or that weird monster dude behind Two-Bad (or, you know. .Two-Bad). Instead, here's fourteen new Snake Men that virtually no one asked for.

I do hope, in addition to finishing the vintage roster and making more un-made characters/designs from other media like the mini-comics, that Mattel can go back and hit up some of those packaging design looks. In addition to continuing to create new characters and looks for existing characters. A healthy mix is what I'm after and could keep me interested for several more years. Barring price hikes or everything being MC-only released one figure at a time specifically to fuck over Int. collectors, that is.

I just saw cartoon He-Man and Beast Man at Target last week, so the line is still making it to retail.  As well as the TMNT crossover line.   Which is good news.  Retail is continuing to order the line.  So there's always a chance of a cross-media line which could bring out some of the lost figures.  Maybe they're set on the sprinkle releases via Creations, though.  

@theknightdamien I can't believe they published that art book, but it really is worth picking up (especially if you don't have space to save the packaging, which I don't). Seems like a rare decision to really highlight and show off the work the artists did for the packaging. I'd pick one of those up for a lot of the lines I collect.

@theknightdamien Where did you pick up the book?

The other thing to remember coming up is the Snake Lair(?) crowdfund.  It is only going to get more Snake Men related in Origins for the near term.

@docsilence Yeah - I remember a bunch of us saying right at the beginning that we wanted a collection of all the card art printed into a book because most of us both cannot and will not save a bunch of packaging. But I don't think I ever expected them to actually do it. And they did a great job on it. Well worth the money and so nice to see this kind of attention being paid to the artists that are very often kind of ignored in favor of talking about the product itself.

Now I'm just hoping we get a Part II of this book, since there's been, and will continue to be, so much more packaging art released since this one was wrapped up.

@canprime I grabbed it from Amazon. It was on sale for 54 CAD. If I'd gotten it from BBTS it would have been more like 70-something, and I haven't been able to find it at Chapters or anything. 54 bucks for this book is a smokin' deal, though. Similar art books for video games and stuff are regularly in the 70-90 range and seem to rarely go on sale.

As for the snake lair - I thought about mentioning that but I already feel like I went a little too hard on the anti-snake stuff and didn't want to bang on too much more about it. But I definitely feel like some of these figures should have been part of that crowdfund, or held off to release either during the crowdfund or during fulfillment of the crowdfund assuming it's successful.

Probably sounds like I'm down on the very concept but it's important to remember that two Snake Men are among my favorite vintage toys (Sssqueeze and Rattlor). I like the Snake Men just fine as a faction. I just don't get why, if we're going to get random new characters, that's all we're getting.

@theknightdamien BECAUASE THE SNAKE MEN RULE!!!!!!!!!  EVERYONE ELSE DROOLS!!!!!!!!  hahaha

It could just come down to the team at Mattel.  Maybe there are enough of them who are big Snake Men fans, or just the top guys.  So that means Snake Men get more attention than they would under other people.

I have the Covenant Of Primus book from a few years ago and got it for a steal on Amazon ($58).  It is pretty great so I might have to go in on the MOTU art book.  There is a HUGE (seriously, physically HUGE) GI JOE book that was crowdfunded I believe.  It was released fairly recently and it looks great, but the price was prohibitively expensive for outside the US.   I wouldn't mind an art book for Classified though.  I wish they would get around to something like that.

I love the Snake Men.  I have always enjoyed them.  Tung Lashor, Kobra Kahn, and Rattlor were favorites of mine as a kid, both because of their looks and their features.  And I always liked all the threats He-Man and the Masters had to face.  Not just Skeletor and the Evil Warriors.  But The Horde and Snake Men as well.

It's fun to think of the evil threats teaming up, betraying each other, and then of course you have to have all the factions represented to have The Ultimate Battle Ground II.  The epic war for the soul of Eternia and the Power of the Universe.

So......I like Snake Men lol.

I hope my Sy-Klone figures don't come today.  Because here in Ohio, we are having some serious weather.  Massive winds, Tornadoes.  It's like Sy-Klone IS here, and he's pissed.

Yes to all the snake men!   

Of the eight Axel Gimenez designed Snake Men, the four that still don't have figures in Origins yet are:

Stretch Nek

Quick Flick

High Priest Pythonus

Golden Rod

So, it will be interesting to see if they continue to lean in on that list.   But there's also the character that was included on the Moss Man card art that is a red snake that uses Kobra Khan's flared cobra head and torso with the snake body lower half that came with Lady Slither -  that would be an easy one to crank out since all the parts exist.

They could also pivot to include some of the other characters Axel fleshed out from mini-comics and what not - 

Great Black Wizard

Bandwidth

Red Shadow

Gladiator

Obviously I would be stoked to see any and all of that find it's way into the line...  but let's hope the remaining vintage figures get peppered in first to avoid any riots 

@canprime  Yeah, I wanted that G.I. Joe book but it was just too much for me for what it was. As someone that doesn't really collect Classified very much - a book of that packaging art wouldn't interest me. I have TONS of nostalgia for the vintage art for obvious reasons but I have basically zero attachment to the current stuff. To be fair, just in general I'm also a lot more likely to pay attention to 'fantasy art' than like.. military art - I guess? So where I might grab a Classified figure, rip it open, and barely ever look at the package, I'm way more likely to stop and admire the MOTU art before opening it.

@supercamel-1982 Oh yeah - I also like Snake Men. Can't say that enough. I just don't like them 'to the exclusion of all else.' Hence my call for a more balanced approach with new designs/characters. I'd love to see a new Heroic Warrior, more non-snakes from the packaging art - even a whole new faction. I'm down for MOTU expansions in all directions. Just like.. in more than one direction, please.

Seeing pics of peoples' Sy-Clones makes me wish I'd grabbed him even though he's never been a favorite of mine. Also makes me think we need like a Gar Knights/Sentries two-pack or something. Hope you're staying safe over there, by the way.

@panthercult  You have my full support with that second group of four you mentioned. And, to be very clear, with the first group of four as well. I just don't want to see that first group all at once and no one from the second group.

Maybe a weird one, but I also really want to see Light Hope (the MOTUC design) in Origins. I think that would look great in this form factor. And more POP in general. I know this is targeted primarily at boys or people with specific nostalgia for MOTU and not necessarily for POP - but not even a Seahawk or Bow yet? C'mon.

Edit: This new forum sucks so bad. Once again all my text has gone fuck-ass wonky and I've got no clue why.

Just a question now that Sy-Klone is shipping to people.

 Is anyone else still waiting for their Rokkon?  I know it was sometime in May that was the expected date, but with so many people already getting Rokkon, and now Sy-Klone I have to admit I am getting a bit antsy.  

Got shipping for Sy-Clone today. It's funny, I love to have him but after seeing how EPIC the Masterverse version the revealed is I'm just slightly less excited about the Origins version. I was just blown away by the New Eternia re-imagining. That being said, old vintage one was one of those figures I never stopped playing with as a kid, so I am looking forward to getting him in a few days. 

The art book thing - I was looking at the art for Snout Spout and thinking I would absolutely buy a Book 2 of art from MOTU Origins and Masterverse. I'd hope they include Turtles of Grayskull but imagine there's licensing issues there. And as a massive Classified collector - weirdly, as much as I bloody LOVE that line, very little interest in an art book. There's something so rich and vibrant about all the MOTU art that makes me want to own it forever, whereas the Joes stuff still feels a bit like packaging (I mean I like it, it just doesn't feel as... epic?). I feel actual guilt tossing MOTU packaging in the recycling bin. 

I love that new art book! I wish Hasbro would do the same for their Transformers Generations and G.I. Joe Classified packaging artwork. That original G.I. Joe artwork book is really impressive, but the price is a bit much to swallow, especially when a similar thing was done collecting all of the G1 Transformers artwork a few years ago for an affordable price.

Today’s packaging art for MOTU is on a completely different level though. Every Origins packaging devotes a ton of space for the artwork, allowing it to actually tell a story and have detailed characters and backgrounds with beautiful, vibrant colors.  It gives more personality to the toy you’re buying than the mini-comics. I’m so glad they decided to collect it all, and I hope they’ll do a second book with the rest of the artwork that’s been released and is still to come!