Review: MOTUC reviews by Pixel Dan

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Review: The Dark Arsenal of the Space Pirate: The Tools of the Master Strategist

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Review: Eternian Palace Guard 2-pack

January 2010 was a busy month for Masters of the Universe fans, who dug deep to get their hands on not only Mattel's first ever $40 army bulider two-pack, but also fits full of the company's limited run of display stands, ________(who else?). I picked up four sets of the fiugres that month, and after some wheeling and dealing on the Org's marketplace foum, I ended up with 16 guards

Masters of the Universe fans dug deep when Mattel released its first army bulding two-pack in January 2010 in the form of

It's safe to say these are far more succesful than the MTOUC vs. DCUC figures that.....

You get a generous four heads with this set, all of which wear a blue helmet nearly identicle to the one worn by Man-At-Arms, except that each has holes in the sides of the front of the helm to allow for the addition of a blue faceplate. One of the heads is decidedly snakelike, and makes me wish that had released a scaly version of Man-At-Arms as he was depicted in the 200x animated cartoon series in which King Hssss transformed the "masters" into slithering minions by the power of the fabled Ring of Serpentos. In honor of Mattel Marketing Manager Toyguru's (a.k.a. ____'s) 1983 Create-a-Character contest entry, one of these heads comes with the name Lieutenant Specter, who is mentioned in the set's bio as _____. Numerous fans have likened the (African-Eternian?) head to Clamp Champ. The fact that guards' bodies are covered chest to toe in armor makes it easy.... (include pic of warewolf guy).

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Choking Hazard: TRU Exclusives - Mattel's 2-pack folly

Why was this exlusive Zodac set so hard to get? The Vs. toyline seemed to be doomed to the discount bin from the start. Some blame it on a poor choice of figures, partly because Mattel has an affinity to repackage its figures as much as possible in the DCUC toyline, while the MOTUC fiugres were themselves repaints of existing figures. Diehard Masters of the Universe fans for the most part applauded the use of alternative paint schemes for characters as they were depicted in the mini comics included with figures in the vintage toyline. To everyone else, however, the return of He-Man and Skeletor to retail stores as what seemed like an experiment with Mattel's popular online-only MOTUC toyline appeared to go largely unnoticed. Most people did not likely regonize the odd color schemes (turquise blue for Mer-man, for example), and nowhere on the figures' packaging was the familiar explosive red design children adored in the 80's. Artwork featured on the packaging was less than admired. Also, fans of both the MOTU and DCUC toylines were faced with the decision of whether or not they would pay the extra money to buy both figures, when in all likelihood they only wanted (or had the money for) one of the two toys. The result was stores unable to sell off their initial Vs. sets, preventing fans from buying later toys that came down the line. Eventually Mattel called it quits on this series, choosing to end it with an exclusive figure set featuring a previously unseen character variant, Battle Armor Faker, which will soon be in my mailbox and ready for his own review!

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Opinion piece ideas (Canon Fodder)

Black/white photos of me and other columnists? Top art: white space pops over top as edge of charred burned paper on top of colorful art? Feature artwork of Chris ___? Post topics: Reviews, reveals, great finds, toyshop tours, 3rd party product news and interviews, interview creator of he-man, other celebrities. Ask famous people to review figures? Gather impressions by Toyguru, Horsemen, Etc.? Make Blog into a trendy Seattle Weekly type of stylish posh news blog? Highest quality copy: Big names, big things, fresh info, inside info. Write out goals for this blog: * Possible to add tagging to this blog? Pretty important! (Reviews, Customizing, News, POP, etc.) * What do readers want to know?: When was this figure released? What new tooling is there? What are Mattel's thoughts about this figure? Pixel Dan's? Toyguru? Etc.? Add quotes that link to the source. * Research information people may not know about this figure. * Intense, interesting, head-turning, thinking photos. * Don't hammer people with info they already know, but don't assume they know everything. * Find other blog tips. Optimize for social networking. Think about getting a toysatan@gmail.com E-mail. RSS and all that. Opinion pieces (Catchy title with "Canon" in it, play on words with cannon, "Canon Fodder"). * Finish custom projects before someone esle does! Get out all of the bags, find the dremmel.

column: Choking Hazard
Mo-Larr
Specter
Release schedules
Character speculation
(Unatainable?) Consumer expectations. All pre-planned or flexible? Taking credit for listening to players when they're just following the schedule?
MOTUC Vs. DCUC:
Interview: (Inventor?) of He-Man
To MOC or not to MOC?
Brainstorm unique photo ideas. Research: Lots of photo ideas out there.
Brainstorm list of people to interview:
Eventually offer opportunity for people to submit op-ed pieces.
Use title of Editor, not webhost or webmaster.

Research photoshop trends, styles, how-to guides, learn how to duplicate the art I want!
Make searcheable word document including all Q&A's from Mattel, and notes where applicable (promises not kept, etc. consider it a Wikileaks-type document. Maybe use Wikileaks theme for column?)

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Review: TRU Exclusive Battle Armor Faker

As much as I savor the thrill of tracking down a rare, hard-to-find collectible, what's even more satisfying is sharing in this thrill with other MOTU fans on He-Man.org's Masters of the Universe Classics Marketplace. It's where I found over half of the figues in my collection, and is how I got my hands on the exclusive Toys R' Us two-pack of DCUC's Bizarro figure, facing off against MOTUC's never-before-seen variant figure, Battle Armor Faker!

For a number of long-time fans, this figure is a dream come true. Like Others have gone the extra step of making custom figures of Battle Armor Faker. I'm proud to say today that I was one of them.

This new official Battle Armor Faker action figure bears the telltale sign of a product sold in the Vs. series: no new tooling, a lack of accessories, and an oddball color scheme. The Good:


The Not-So-Good: The only thing I truly lament aobut this figure is the bio on the back of the package. Unlike every other character variant Mattel has released, this new figure does not come with any new information about Faker that would reveal to us details in _____. In fact, it's identicle the to the bio we received in the standard Faker figure. Mattel missed the perfect opportunity to flesh out ____.


The colors work for Faker in this instance though, partly because Faker himself is at his core a color swap of He-man. Until I got this figure in-hand, I didn't have high hopes for him. Boy was I wrong. The removeable battle armor looks striking cast in orange and black (more about colors). Only Faker blue, orange and black. Another surprise was that Mattel chose to include all three interchangeable chest pieces. mention colors of removable pieces. then mention the orange accessories and how they work really well with battle armor faker. The orange/black shield fits especially well with him.



include photos: side-by sides of this faker and regular faker, and show image of all three battle armors side-by-side, as well as palace guard armor. picture of BAFaker with 3rd party items equipped. Experiment with different color backgrounds! Get paper from craftstore. What about lighting? Experiment. Consider buying lamps (again).

*** Make professional looking background taht looks like background ads from GameFaqs.com, Pandora.com and elsewhere. Also include banner ads that do the same thing. Use picture of me as satan for my profile picture.

Now mention 3rd party accessories looking great with this Faker.

Use neat words. Get suggestions from other blogs and thesauruses and whatnot.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-most-liked-word-of-the-day/flummox.html
Use Penny-arcade-esque blog format? Hmmm.

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Review: Toys R' Us Exclusive Zodac

After visiting numerous dusty piles of exclusive wave 1 and 2 two-packs living out shunned, wasted lives on the clearance aisles of toy stores around Seattle, I came across a message board posting on the Org from a fan showing off several shots of MOTUC Green Lantern Vs. Zodac boxes at a store in Washington State while he was on vacation. He also took a shot of the store's distinctly ghetto exterior, which I immediately recognized with schoolgirl-like glee as being located less than an hour from my house! Sure enough, two sets of the figures were taking shelter behind a vangaurd of Lex Luthors and He-Men. And on sale no less! Success!

I tried very hard not to get excited about the idea of springing for yet another flavor of Zodac (the others being vanilla bean Zodac and chocolate thunder Zodak), but I quickly remembered that I had already spent over a couple grand on my mostly shameless pastime, and that I will undoubtedly be toiling away to secure funding for other such grandiose "investments" in the coming years, stuffing China's bulging coffers to feed my addiction to their sweet and sour resin opium.

In no way did I expect this to be a replacement for original MOTUC Zodac figure, which was a defiantly faithful redesign of its 1982 debut. Even as I opened the packaging, wafting the nostalgic plasticity I coveted as a child (yes, I'm a confessed wafter), my incredulous mummers turned to stone and crumbled on the floor at the sight of the improvements that had made to this newest rendition. The head features noticeably brighter, richer cherry red paint, while the black limpid pools of its eyes have grown an added layer of gloss, akin to the eyes of a helpless harp seal pup staring innocently into the shaft of a club.

A new feature censored by the package's choking hazard sticker and mossy green masonry are the small gray booties found on Keldor, Stratos, and numerous other figures in the line. Though seemingly an insignificant change, I feel it adds a lot to the character's design by detracting from the alienness that helped so many artists and writers peg Zodac for a villain in the franchise's youth. The jutting arm fins borrowed from Skeletor's design could be considered an extension of the figure's new white gloves, further humanizing the cosmic enforcer and helping fans cement him in thier minds as a heroic variant of the more evil looking design with clawed feet borrowed from Skeletor, or perhaps even canonizing him as the pale, gotee-clad apprentice featured in the classic Filmation cartoon series. For me, the new gloves look especially stylish against his bony, veined hands, and reminds me of Lion-O from the recently reanimated Thundercats cartoon.

I felt a tinge of betrayal digging through the packaging to find that the staff portrayed in the packaging's amateurish boxart was not actually included with this figure, leaving us to be content with the same ray gun used by the slightly less fashionable Zodac. Alternatively, fans can simply paint over the otherwise-useless pink Zodak staff they received in the first weapons pack (~$2 for the acrylic paint, and $2 for the brush. I recommend a matte, non-glossy finish that will run ~$6 for the can, and practice spraying your sister's favorite toys first so you don't end up using too much on the staff).

Everything else on this figure is identical to the original, except for one bad case of bobble-head. The hole carved into the backside of Zodac's head is slightly too large for the neck peg it attaches too, and while you don't need to worry about the head falling off into your Captain Crunch, you may need to stick something in there to fill in the added gap, such as a bit of rubber cement.

Pixel Dan reviews MOTUC Vs. DCUC Green Lantern Vs. Zodac

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Welcome to Toysatan.com!

Hello and welcome to Toysatan.com, your premiere domain for Mattel Inc.'s Masters of the Universe (MOTU) franchise! The purpose of this site is to not only to help keep He-Man fans informed with the latest news related to the best toy series ever made, but also to show off fans' artwork, fanfics, photography and crafts, while offering a slew of great downloads and unique products that will help fans enhance their collections in many fun ways!

Make Blog into a trendy Seattle Weekly type of stylish posh news blog? Highest quality copy: Big names, big things, fresh info, inside info. Also, videos!

I am Adultcollector, known on popular sites such as He-Man.org, theFwoosh.com and Mattycollector.com for my photography, customs and craftwork. Like most other He-Man fans, I collected Masters of the Universe figures as a child. Over 25 years later, I decided as an experiment to buy and sell vintage collections of these toys on Ebay.com as a way of making extra money. In my research and experience I fell in love with the toys and cartoon series all over again, and now I'm having an immensely fun time collecting the popular Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) toyline! Flaunt journalism background, web/graphics/multimediaproduction, show them I have what it takes to make a great site.
I got the idea to use the name from an image I photoshopped. I went to festival. pie thrown. inverted and added horns.

This site's name pays homage to one of my favorite MOTU fan sites, Toyjesus.com. That site's owner has for years provided fans with downloadable decals used to replace and restore the stickers on many vintage Masters of the Universe action figures, vehicles and playsets. I've found it handy on more than one occasion, whether I'm looking to make a little extra money on the toys I'm selling (with a full disclaimer to buyers that I'm using the printed stickers) or looking to spruce up my own collection. Speaking of disclaimers, the name Toysatan.com has no religious meaning behind it, and I do hope fans will understand this.

Include picture of me as a kind playing with He-Man figures.

I will continue to be active on Facebook, Google+, and all of our favorite MOTU fan sites. My greatest hope will be to help foster a fun, interactive and creative atmosphere among collectors of all ages, all around the world!

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