[megachickmagnet]

I was wondering if you could comment on the upcoming MOTUC Castle Grayskull. Although it is a FANTASTIC sculpt, Many fans feel that it is too small for the figures. I think it's safe to say that you guys were only following Mattel's guidelines --- and If it were up to you, it would be bigger.
Since the NYTF reveal, Has Mattel shown any interest in the fans reactions, is there any pending plans to make modifications to the castle in terms of overall scale, size of doorway, etc? Is it true you only sculpted the monster dungeon grate for fun and it was never intended to be part of the play set?

Thanks,
"D"

We think if everyone both here and Mattel had their choice the castle would be much larger, but prohibitive costs for both production and shipping just unfortunately wouldn't allow it.

We're not privy to Mattel's discussions or opinions about fan reactions. We did the dungeon grate on our own but not for fun.

We wanted to make it available to Mattel IF it could be costed in to the castle, all the while knowing that it probably wouldn't be possible. MTV Geek took photos of that part and were supposed to run it past Mattel to decide whether it should be shown or not. We don't know what happened with that photo between our studio and the photo appearing on their website (in our opinion it should never have been seen by the public yet), but our hope now is that since it can't be costed into the initial release of Castle Grayskull, that they find a way to release it on Matty Collector in some way. Keep your fingers crossed.

-FH-

[TommyGoth]

Translation: Everyone agrees that it's smaller then advertised and we're not doing anything to change it.

[featofstrength]

TommyGoth, on 22 February 2013 - 02:38 PM, said:

Translation: Everyone agrees that it's smaller then advertised and we're not doing anything to change it.

hahahahahaha!

+1

[shokker]

Thats what i took from it to. I would be happy with a grayskull pack who comes later if the castle would just be a bit bigger.

[Wheeljack35]

I have nothing against its size

I mean wtf? You guys want to pay more?

[BigBot84]

It's been discussed already. Most people expected the castle to be more in scale with the figures, not just an upscaling of the vintage castle in relation to the size of the figures.

[megachickmagnet]

I for one would pay more if it were bigger, and I think many fans would for the sake of having a CORRECTLY sized castle. Amazing how they downsize the castle, then boost the price up to $275. I'd laugh if I wasn't so filled with hatred towards this toy company.

[shokker]

Funny thing, fans are coming up with simple ideas and plans how it could be better. Not much tooling would be involved and yet the sculpt is done. Cant change it.

[Nguyen_Dragon]

megachickmagnet, on 22 February 2013 - 04:19 PM, said:

I for one would pay more if it were bigger, and I think many fans would for the sake of having a CORRECTLY sized castle. Amazing how they downsize the castle, then boost the price up to $275. I'd laugh if I wasn't so filled with hatred towards this toy company.

I would also... He-Man looks weird doing his pose in front of the door...

[CaptainTriumph]

Nguyen_Dragon, on 22 February 2013 - 05:06 PM, said:

megachickmagnet, on 22 February 2013 - 04:19 PM, said:

I for one would pay more if it were bigger, and I think many fans would for the sake of having a CORRECTLY sized castle. Amazing how they downsize the castle, then boost the price up to $275. I'd laugh if I wasn't so filled with hatred towards this toy company.

I would also... He-Man looks weird doing his pose in front of the door...

I think is the issue is everyone feels they already paid enough for a larger castle.

[megachickmagnet]

I really think the 4H aren't particularly happy that they were forced to make the castle the size it is. They seem to be smart enough to know what would be a better scale for the figures. In the end they are contractors for Mattel, and they do what Mattel tells them. You know, I'm beating a dead horse when I say this... but, I am truly devastated by this. MOTUC is one of the most epic, greatest line of action figures of all time, and what do they give us?... a less than stellar, hardly epic play set that is better suited for a 3.75 line. I simply cannot get over this. We've been disappointed before with other things like QC issues, etc... but this really takes the cake. Castle Grayskull could have been THE greatest thing since sliced Wun Dar bread.

[Dark Horse]

It's obvious that they are pissed. Reading between the lines they are saying that Mattel's greed and false promises are to blame here.

Basically, there is no news here. It's everything we knew it would be. TG lies, bait and swith, Matty ripping people off yadda yadda yadda.

At least we have proof now.

[Flounnderr]

Theres no reason for the horsemen to release a statement. THey did this on their own. The statement boils down that they designed the door and know the size for the castle is smaller, but due to Mattel choices on costs, their hands were tied. I think they want to distance themselves from mattel abit so they dont get any backlash. THere must be some real issue if they're willing to go on record about it.

regards
Joshua

[BigBot84]

There was that news article last year where the 4H said that they had other projects they wanted to work on but were bogged down with Mattel's work on DC and MOTUC.

[gruntcast]

this is like beating a dead horse' lol' it seems like they are at 2 of these kinds of post daily. Mattel is not perfect, we know there are lots of valid complaints some are changeable some are not. At the end of day you can either buy or not, its just toys in the end, its not like they control your house payment or rent.

[CaptainTriumph]

gruntcast, on 23 February 2013 - 02:58 AM, said:

this is like beating a dead horse' lol' it seems like they are at 2 of these kinds of post daily. Mattel is not perfect, we know there are lots of valid complaints some are changeable some are not. At the end of day you can either buy or not, its just toys in the end, its not like they control your house payment or rent.

Actually, I was hoping the castle was going to be large enough for me to live in it....

[JayC]

LOL, I'm curious. How many of you that have been complaining so much about it being a little smaller than the blue prints have actually canceled your Grayskull orders?

[Dark Horse]

11% smaller (or whatever it is) isn't a little smaller.

I'm waiting until SDCC to see the final product before I cancel. I dunno why though. We all know it's only going to get worse between now and then.

[shokker]

i won't cancel it. it's still the best castle grayskull sculpt ever. i can life with what we get but it would be the best playset ever to me with just one or two inches more. as you said jayc, you must be realistic and in all the years i collect figures, i know what is up. sure the blue prints looked awesome but i am not interested in that. all i want is he-man to fit perfectly in the main entrance. it's not that a lot of us are complaining about it. i mean at least for me i love to say what i want it to look better and a lot around every board seem to have the same problem who could be fixed easly (ok i dont know how things work behind mattels doors) but its like once the sculpt is done then its impossible to change like no we tried this but if we could do that then it would look better but then cant because its allready sculpted. no room for improvement.

[Zomak]

I'm not too disappointed by the size. As Shocker mentioned, it is still the best looking sculpt of the Castle Grayskull playset EVER made and they finally got the paint apps done right around the eyes! Sure I would have liked it bigger but as it stands now I am still scratching my head as to how I will display it. I definitely will not cancel. Toy Guru did state if you were not happy with the castle you could cancel with no penalty. Just from doing projects around my house I know that what I "want" to do often has to change to what I "can" do after I crunch the numbers and see what resources and materials are available. I know this was the case with Castle Grayskull and Mattel. Perhaps it would have been easier to sculpt it in scale if the MOTUC figures were 3 3/4" scale (which I'm glad they are not) but maybe this is part of the decision making process the Four Housemen made when designing the Power Lords in 3 3/4" scale. Who knows. We might still be getting in scale play sets from the Four Horsemen after all with the Power Lords line

I'm looking forward to the Castle GraySkull. I know many fans here would put in a little extra cash to up the size the castle but the truth is the many others who made the sub possible probably will not. As it is those people might still be trying to figure out how they are going to come up with the initial $250.00 to cover the original costs of the castle (which they did not raise for the original buyers unlike other companies when final costs are made). Mattel took a real chance on this one. I don't remember any other company doing anything similar. Remember there is not MOTUC TV show to bring in new views unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bandai crushed my dreams of having a Cat's Lair in scale with their 6" Thundercats line. Heck, I just would have been happy to get the other 6" classics Thundercats figures. Panthro, our battles would have been epic

The reality of it is we are still in a recession and $250 is not chump change. I am just glad we are actually getting an updated Castle Grayskull play set ESPECIALLY in this economy.

[Monkey_Shuttle]

I'm waiting for the final unveiling at SDCC. Maybe it's hopeless optimism, but I at least want to give Matty a shot at fixing CG or at least making it palatable for me to include in my collection.

If I'm just as disappointed by SDCC as I was at NYCC, then I'll go ahead and cancel it.

I'm pretty impressed with that statue CG that's coming out, anyway, and if that's still available come July, I'll probably just make that my background CG display piece.

[lemure77]

It is the most beautiful sculpt for this toy that has ever been. The size isn't perfect but anything they would do would never be enough for the whole of the collecting world. They could have made it 6 feet tall, lights and sounds, all 4 sides and a roof, exclusive never done versions of 6 figures and only cost 150 bucks and someone would still complain as to why there wasn't a 7th figure representation of insert name here and why they didn't go ahead and do some land out and around it to give the full feel of being there.
I dig it, I am happy I ordered it and should it come out on time I am looking forward to stepping back to the first Christmas I opened this big odd box with a skull face on it.
UNless they somehow just utterly and completely change everything and it comes out as 10 inches tall and accidentally gray, I am good and i say thanks Horsemen. Looking forward to it

[megachickmagnet]

Zomak, on 23 February 2013 - 10:23 AM, said:

Mattel took a real chance on this one.

LOL! If I recall, Mattel took pre-orders, sight unseen for a castle that wasn't even sculpted yet... Yeah, they really went out on a limb with this. lol.

The only reason they are allowing us to cancel is because they're not giving us what was advertised, kinda like the Hoverboard.

[Eric]

I wonder if they had included less could they have made the castle larger. Or was it a shipping issue, and a box of any great dimensions just wasn't going to fly with Mattel?

I haven't placed a preorder, but if I were buying Castle Grayskull, I would prefer a larger scale with fewer bells and whistles to what they're offering, but again, like I said before, I think the biggest problem was we fans dreaming of how epic it could be when it just served to get hopes up for nothing.

I don't think it's bad the way it is, but it is unfortunate that the foam mockup Neitlich showed seems significantly larger.

[Dark Horse]

I just won a complete 200X castle on eBay for $30. The SDCC reveal better be good for the liars at Matty to get my money now.