Back with more tales of Matty Collector madness.
The line had a few pretty successful years where the subs funded no problem. I think it was around 2012 where it started to come apart. It was always kind of run low budget wotj maybe an ad in Toyfare magazine. People did slowly find out about the line more every year. There were people who were MOTU fans every year that had no idea it was even being made. Also there were people in Mattel that had no idea they were doing a MOTU line again it was that small and under the radar.
ToyGuru was always a face on the punching bag for all problems with the line. The Horsemen swear up and down they did the guard head sculpt of him on their own and he had no knowledge of it. It wasn’t booed at the time til much later.
The 30th anniversary line was pretty divisive for the line. “We are smol company with no money. Plz understand”. They had no budget to pay people so he just added in his friends and coworkers. Horsemen was fine, people love that figure. Mighty Spector was a different story. He also made him a time traveler that saved the universe at points in the mini comics they put out. Plus he cosplayed as him at the SDCC both one year.
They did get The Fearless Photog made after all those years since he wasn’t made in the vintage line. Scott tracked the guy down and had him sign the rights over.
There was also a new contest to create a character. Some of the runner ups were bizarre. One disqualified himself by posting his character online since part of the rules was Mattel owned your submission.
There were several years of subscription begging was the norm tied in with
Crybaby.org users campaigning and advertising to “sub or die”.
When Matty Collector had their own forum Guru would post there along with several Mattel people. One who seemed ok was Skeletor’s Love Child.