Mattel Q&A For July 01, 2010

TNI: Now that you have announced that you are doing Voltron toys, will you be showing anything for this line at SDCC?

Mattel: No, we won’t have new Voltron toys until possibly the next SDCC. Product is still deep in development!


TNI: Will Voltron be sold at mass retail, Mattycollector.com or both?

Mattel: It is too early to tell at this point. Stay tuned.


TNI: By the time this Q&A gets posted, the new Jonah Hex movie will have hit theaters. I know you've said in the past that you can do figures based on this property, but will you do anything in the forseeable future, like say a DCUC figure of Hex himself?

Mattel: We would love to do a DCUC version of Jonah Hex and with a new movie out that definitely helps give a reason to do one sooner then later to continue the movie buzz!


TNI: Carnivus was announced as the September figure for the MOTUC line and we were curious how Mattel went about choosing such an obscure character to make into an action figure, and that’s not to say there is anything wrong with doing an obscure character. We were just curious out of all the MOTU characters whether obscure or not how Carnivus came to be chosen for the plastic treatment?

Mattel: We very much wanted to do a good guy from the 200X series as a counter to Count Marzo. We looked at a few characters and Carnivus rose to the top as he just looked so wonderfully heroic (compared to say Dactys who kind of looks “evil”). Also, on a personal note, Toy Guru really wanted to do Carnivus. It has been a figure he has been chomping at the bit to get into the line. Here are his thoughts:

“When I was a kid, one of my favorite films was the animated Disney Robin Hood. At the very end of the film, King Richard shows up and he is a giant lion warrior. That image just always stuck in my head thinking how cool a giant lion action figure would be. When I first saw Carnivus in the 200X series I jumped realizing how cool this character looked and I really hoped Mattel would make him in the 200X line. While he never made it into that line, now that we have MOTUC I did all I could to get him in the Classic line as soon as we could! I just think design-wise he really stands out and just feels very much like what MOTU is all about. We have fish people, lizard guys, bee guys, and skunk men, why not a giant lion-man warrior?”


TNI: Going back to Voltron, can you give us any kind of hints or details about this line, like what scale will it be done in?

Mattel: Sorry, at this point it is just way too early to comment on Voltron. We may have more to tell at SDCC 2011.