Ask Mattel 5/1/2013: Another Reason To Buy Batmobile ’66 & MOTU 2014 Details

Mayday! Mayday! Mattel is back with more answers!!  This round, we discover another  reason everyone should be buying the Batman ’66 Batmobile, details on the next two years’ for Masters of the Universe, and more… read on!

Kastor’s Korner: With the MOTU focus shifting to completing the core collection over the new two years, have you considered spinning off sub-sets such as Princess of Power or New Adventures into their own sub lines (like we saw with Filmation), to make room for more core MOTU characters?  Or are these themes considered part of that core that will be completed within the main line?

Mattel: The focus for 2014 and 2015 (if we get enough sub holders) will be vintage figures from MOTU, POP and NA as well as major characters from animated and comics. Everyone is in the pool. What you won’t see are more concept figures, model kits or some of the more obscure NA characters and variants (like Too Tall Hoove or Crimson Fury etc…)

Kastor’s Korner: We have now seen several artist-specific figures such as Frank Miller’s DKR Batman and the Dave Gibbon’s style Watchmen. Is it possible we will see more artist-accurate renditions of characters from iconic stories? Alex Ross/ Kingdom Come or Brian Bolland/ Killing Joke Joker, come to mind as quick examples?

Mattel: Actually, none of those were artist specific. The Watchmen figures are not Dave Gibbons style the way those DC Direct prototypes were. The Mattel Watchmen line are Four Horsemen interpretations of the Watchmen figures using shared Four Horsemen parts from the DCUC line. We did this so all the figures will blend together into one shared look line. We do not do artist specific figures for DC. That is something DC Direct does!

Kastor’s Korner: Is it possible that potential sales of the ’60s Batmobile will allow you to re-evaluate releasing a comic- or Super Powers-style Batmobile for the 6″ scale DC Universe?

Mattel: Hmmm…that would be pretty amazing.

Kastor’s Korner: Will the 60s Batman line stay a completely mass retail line, or is there a chance it could be enhanced with less “kid friendly” characters (Egg Head or King Tut, for example) via Matty Collector exclusives?

Mattel: There are no plans for a Mattycollector extension right now. We’ll need to wait and see how the retail line does!

Kastor’s Korner: Fang Man was rather notoriously revealed to be the first Club Eternia figure not to be available for day-of sale. What is the rationale behind which other figures would be limited to subscriptions only? Is it predicted popularity/ relevance? Tooling costs of the s[ecific figure? Or something else entirely?

Mattel: It is simply to reward sub holders with more exclusivity and make the subs worth it now that we need them to keep the line going (more then we did for example in 2010 when costs were much lower)