Monday, December 15, 2008

Ask Mattel Batch of Answers for December 15

    1. Do you have specific labels for the bucks you use for a majority of the JLU figures? Like Booster Gold/Sinestro's square-ish body, the generic Waverider/Kyle Rayner body, the slim Atom/Dove body, the heavy Dove/Capt Atom body, the Joker body, the Two-Face body and the female buck?

    The names you mentioned are pretty much how we do it. We don’t have “official” names, but we tend to call the body we used for Question the “Two-Face” body and the body we used for Gentleman Ghost the “Joker body”. It tends to be that the first figure to use a body buck gets to name it.



2. How does Mattel feel about the various customs that are made for the various lines? Do they get inspired by some of them? Do they even notice?

We think they are just terrific! Matty and Toy Guru spend a lot of time on the boards and when they find really cool customes or ideas they often print them out and hang them up on a shared idea wall for all of the member of the team to see!

3. Are there any plans to do a "fans choice" character poll for the JLU line along the lines of what was done for the DCUC line? Fans always love to have a voice in the character selection.

Because the JLU line is specific to an artistic style (i.e. the art deco look of the animated series) it is a bit harder to do a fan poll. We will take this suggestions through and discuss with our license partners.



4. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for DCUC and JLU collectors in the Philippines and other Asian markets? Will we be seeing any DCUC series 3 onwards in retail? How about the new JLU Fan Collection?

That is up to your local retailers. We will ship product to anyone who orders it. JLU will be available for international markets in 2009, although in slightly different configurations with more A list characters in the mix. If you are not seeing your favorite Mattel line at your local retailer, ask for it! Only your retailer can place orders, and Mattel will be happy to ship product to anyone who orders it.


5. How do the Four Horseman split up the workload on character creation? Does each one have his specialty (faces, costumes, overall design, etc) or does each one pick a character or two and go at it so to speak?

Although the Four Horsemen do sometimes come up with some rough concept sketches or control drawings, much of the design process happens as the figure and accessories are being sculpted and fabricated.

Eric Treadaway and Chris Dahlberg handle the figural sculpting, while Jim Preziosi and H. Eric "Cornboy" Mayse tackle the fabrication portion of things. Often sculpting and fabrication happen simultaneously so fabricated parts can be incorporated into the sculpture seamlessly or vice versa.

Usually who does what depends on what's next up on the agenda (usually dependent upon deadlines), and who has just finished a project and is ready to move on to the next thing.

Often, if a character is a favorite of one of the Horsemen, or they're really looking forward to helping to create their own vision of a certain character, the other Horsemen will gladly step aside and let them have at it. There's never any real competition over who gets to do what characters or accessories.