New Universal Monsters in 2014 from Diamond Select

[robodog]

Well, sure it would be blasphemy to you and I but not to todays kids. Besides, all they'd need is one gateway monster and the next thing you know they're here on the UMA shooting the breeze with the rest of us. By the time the kid found out that the Creature WASN'T a Pokémon they'd already be hooked by his coolness and would begin to demand more. How could they not be? Sometimes you have to do a little evil for the greater good.

[Mike Scott]

Besides, all they'd need is one gateway monster and the next thing you know . .

I see an intervention in someone's future!

[Anton Phibes]

Universal could very easily put these Monsters back into people's awareness simpy by doing what Warner Bros. is doing with the DC comics properties. They already own the Karloff likeness. How hard would it be to make a direct to dvd re-introduction to Frankenstein? They are a movie studio after all. Release it at Halloween and do some internet and commercial tv advertising. They might be suprised. It just might sell.

If they can release Alvin and the Chipmunks meet Frankenstein and follow it up with them meeting the Wolfman---why not straight forward horror releases?

Plus---could you imagine an anthology style horror series featuring the Monsters? Kind of like the old Marvel Tales of Suspense? Where half of the book is one monster and the other half is another? Then switch them up every few months.

Bring in talent like Michael Kaluta, John Bolton, Mike Ploog, and Berni Wrightson for art chores, have stories by well known horror writers in the comics realm.....and introductions by the likes of Stephen King, G. Del Toro, John Carpenter. It would be great. Plus more than we (the over 40 crowd) would buy them.

But instead....Universal does nothing. Nothing at all.

I am very glad to see that we got as many Mego esque Monsters as we did. If the changes to the Mutant arent cost cutters....and the result of Universal's meddling; I think they screwed the pooch. I liked the veins and colors of the prototype much more than the reised version. Again---this is just my opinion. Maybe others feel differently. I wasn't clamoring nor  "wishing" for the monsters line to end. But when I didnt see any new reveals for this line past mutant and Phantom at this years Toy Fair or SDCC....I thought that's where it was headed.

[Mord]

Yeah, Anton, it looks like the Mutant's leg veins were done with a fine tip marker. I guess the Phantom does have the cloak, though a mini-skirt version. I do think this series is on it's last legs and don't regret it. Don't get me wrong, I have spent over $500 on the DST universal line (so don't say I'm not supportive). I've bought all of the 7"ers (including all variants), 8" Megos and bust banks (B&W too). The only thing I didn't buy were the Mini-Mates. I just don't know what else they can do. Chaney and Lugosi are out and they've exhausted all of Karloff's commercially viable characters. Face it, they're not going to pull a Sideshow and do the cool supporting characters we want (at least not movie-accurate versions). So all that's left is redoing Karloff Frankensteins and Creatures and "re-imagining" characters like next years dreadful Van Helsing. I think the only way to go is independent toymakers like Distinctive Dummies who will do the characters even Sideshow didn't do (their Mego Hammer line is the best of this year). It will definitely cost a lot more, but at least we'll be filling our collections with pieces we truly want and like. 

[Anton Phibes]

The veins were what made me think it was a cheap out. I couldnt care less that they changed the belt color. Sideshow's 8 inch Mutant had a black belt. They switched to red for the 12 inch figure. That desnt bug me. But the veins left me scratching my head. Their very faint...and yes---they do look "drawn on".

[Mr. Hyde]

Is it me or is that Mego Phantom head sculpt about freakin' perfect?!

[Anton Phibes]

Is it me or is that Mego Phantom head sculpt about freakin' perfect?!

It's magnificent. Probably the best figure in terms of likeness sculpt in the set!!!!!!

[marsattacks666]

I couldn't agree more. Let's not let our analytic idiosyncrasies over mass produced action figures kill a commercial retail market that is already pretty much nonexistent. Just the fact that these exist at all is nothing short of astonishing.

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

[King Kang Kong]

Yeah, EMCE really nailed the Phantom head. And the Mutant's!



The Mutant's leg printing may be slightly fainter than it could have been, but I'd chalk it up to the material, which is a fuzzy Mego-esque pajama. You can see from this picture it doesn't look hand-drawn, and it is more film-accurate. Changes to prototypes will always have to be made based on the factory's capabilities and material availability. So blame us for the figure being different, even if it more closely resembles the source material.



(FYI, Mord, we have Chaney likeness rights. All of our Chaney and Chaney Jr. products have been licensed from the estate, so I'm not sure why you said he's "out" along with Lugosi.)

I wish we could make non-monster characters work as fully sculpted figures, but the audience needs to be there to justify the sizable tooling expense, and we honestly don't see sales for the non-monsters reaching the 10,000+ we need to go forward. Not everyone who buys our toys (retailers AND consumers) wants to go as deep with each film as the fans here. And while they use less tooling, even cloth costume figures have minimums, where we need to make (and sell) a certain number in order to cover the material costs and licensing fees and still offer them at an optimal price.

Distinctive Dummies does fine work, but at the end of the day they're customs. They charge a premium price, and they only make 15-100 of them, which is presumably the number of figures they think they can sell at that price. I appreciate that they pay a fee to the make-up artist, but I assume they also save on one big expense by not paying a licensing fee to Hammer Productions, or whoever owns the film rights to a given movie. (I assume that's why they're called "customs," which is a legal grey area.) I'm glad you guys have him as a resource, but it's simply not a business model we can implement.

[Mord]

I realize all this, KKK. The problem is...where do you go from here? There's only so many Frankensteins and Creatures we need in our collections. You yourself stated that you can't sell the more obscure characters and have already exhausted the main ones. What else can you do? That's why I say that I have no regrets if this is the end of this line. It's not because I don't like it (hell, I'm one of your best customers), it's only because I don't see much hope for anything new. Also, I never suggested that you guys didn't have the Chaney license, I just meant that with this current lawsuit future figures might be a problem (not to mention that you have also gone through all of the sellable Chaney characters). Trust me, I have the entire line and they are all proudly displayed in my collection (except the Draculas, I kinda hide him behind the other figures). My main complaint is that the finished product never looks anywhere as good as the prototype you use as a presale sample. I still buy them, though. Is there anything I've said here that you object to? I really admire and respect your input. Thank you.

[Anton Phibes]

I like the fuzzy Mego eque pajamas. That pic you took makes the veins appear a little more than just "drawn on". Which is good. Because I was concerned it was gonna be bad,lol. Look---for the record....I have bought all of the DST plastic TRU figures, most of the DST deluxe versions (even though the paint suffered greatly on the Frankenstein and Dracula wave in my opinion). I had to play catch up a bit because I waffled back and forth on the paint. BUT I have bouhgt all of the Emce figures from day 1. Love those.

I think Werewolf of London would've sold as a figure in this series. Surely a Kharis version of the Mummy would've. Those are still monsters in the "accepted" sense of the term with regards to being a "werewolf" and "mummy".

But in this economy---mayeb they wouldn't....who knows? The Shadow, of course, but he aint talking. Thanks for the mutant veins shot. makes me a little more at ease with what I am gonna see at my retailer on 9/25.

[Mike Scott]

There's only so many . . . Creatures we need in our collections.

Speak for yourself! 

[Anton Phibes]

The gargoyle looks nice, I can't wait to get one (still only have the stone floor).

Are you allowed to show us what the "stone base" for Quasimodo looks like? For some reason, no shots of him on that base are shown on the internet that I can find. Thanks.

[King Kang Kong]

I'll take a picture of the stone base, Anton. And I believe Werewolf of London was not something we could do -- I know Sideshow did one (one of my faves), but I guess licensing changes. We wanted to do him! As far as Kharis goes, I think we knew we had the Karloff license for Frankenstein, and I assume we decided to go with Im-Ho-Tep because we could. Nothing against Kharis, but Karloff is Karloff, and we thought the likeness would bring a broader recognition and appeal to the figure that Kharis just doesn't have.

And sorry, Mord, I guess I was just reading your resignation as a lack of understanding, or maybe I picked it up from other posters. We wondered what we could do next, as well, and I think we decided that if we wanted to make cool monsters, we might have to go outside the license to create our own. We have some cool plans for Van Helsing, and some real talent working on the creatures, and hopefully they win over the traditional monster fans. Van Helsing may not be your cup of tea, but I think it's a bit much to call him "dreadful."

[Mike Scott]

We wondered what we could do next, as well, and I think we decided that if we wanted to make cool monsters, we might have to go outside the license to create our own.

Any time you want to do some non-Uni 1950s aliens/monsters, don't let me stop you (not that I would)!