Mattel can literally screw up anything.

[enyawd72]

Soooo, the movie "Hook" was on the other night. I watched it and really liked it...then I seemed to remember they made some figures from it so I decided to look them up for possible purchase on Ebay. Found out Mattel did indeed make a toyline.

Now, with Captain Hook being the title character, and having only ONE distinct physical feature, Mattel STILL managed to screw up an otherwise great figure of Dustin Hoffman by...wait for it...wait for it...putting his hook on THE WRONG ARM.

And it continues to this day...

[MIB41]

You have to give Mattel some credit though... When they do it wrong, they REALLY do it wrong. So I guess we can say they do honestly try with any standard they aim to reach. And to think in the old days (70's speaking here) they could put out some amazing product lines. I will give them one exception here. I was one of the few who did like their Superman Movie Masters 12 inch figures. I think Zod and Lex are pretty cool figures. Supes is pretty good too, but they didn't quite nail the head sculpt. But the effort was there and I liked the body and outfit. Plus the packaging was top notch. So every now and again they get close to the mark.

[enyawd72]

Not so fast there Tom...I just got a four pack of Mattel's 1979 Flash Gordon figures yesterday, and was chuckling to myself about how they neglected to give Captain Arak a gun, even though he has a holster for it, but they gave big honking staffs to Thun and the Lizard Woman, the only two figures in the line with hands that can't hold ANYTHING.

[Earth 2 Chris]

As I recall, Mattel didn't have any likeness rights for Hook, and the figures looked pretty horrid. This was around the same time Kenner did the recycled Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves line. An odd time for movie action figures.

Mattel did of course give us Big Jim and MOTU, so they do have some serious street cred in action figure circles.

Chris

[MIB41]

Not so fast there Tom...I just got a four pack of Mattel's 1979 Flash Gordon figures yesterday, and was chuckling to myself about how they neglected to give Captain Arak a gun, even though he has a holster for it, but they gave big honking staffs to Thun and the Lizard Woman, the only two figures in the line with hands that can't hold ANYTHING.

Can't argue that. But then again that was the early years when companies were venturing into the new "Star Wars" scale and Mattel was one of countless companies making these tiny figures on the cheap to promote Saturday morning cartoons. Your Flash Gordon sampling is a good example of that. Of course I need to qualify my "70's comment" by suggesting 'any product placement prior to Star Wars'. As a kid collector my interest in new product fell off measurably after Star Wars because it essentially killed the Mego scale which I had enjoyed.

[Access]

I just picked up a MINT sealed box mattell "last action hero" Roadster that is essentially a shelby cobra with a bucnh of weapons that come out. I also picked up an arnold figure from the same movie at a flea market last week for a buck! lol Collecting toys from "Bad movies" might be a fun and interesting theme! lol

[Chris]

Supes is pretty good too, but they didn't quite nail the head sculpt. But the effort was there and I liked the body and outfit. Plus the packaging was top notch. So every now and again they get close to the mark.

It was because of MIB141 I bought the Mattel Superman and swapped out the head with a Hot Toys head and boots. The figure turned out really well and saved me a ton of cash. Thank you!

Thanks to ENYAWD I have top notch custom Mego figures. 'Nuff about me and back to Mattel. Yeah. I'm glad they are out of my life.

[huedell]

I'm a huge Mattel fan, but you have to laugh reading the thread title if you've been into toys in the last couple decades.

The follies speak for themselves.

[Bionicfanboy66]

Mattel pretty much had their heyday during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. 90's til now has been garbage, IMO.