Long time readers will remember old posts questioning Moose Toys and Mutant Mania for design choices. For those who may not know, Mutant Mania was a cool new twist on the classic Kinnikuman/ MUSCLE minifigures. They were made in awesome vibrant colors and had all kinds of crazy and gross-out characters akin to The Trash Pack. Where it really fell apart, at least for me, was that they were nowhere close to being a single slug minifigure. In fact, they were three pieces held tightly together with a rubber barbell that ran through the exposed back of the minifigure. This was the selling point of the toyline. It made it customizable, as well as playable, that is, if anyone really felt the same.
Mutant Mania's first set sold and created a fan base, however, I can't really say how well or how big, considering the toyline didn't really grow much past that. I suppose we can all say it wasn't successful enough, whatever the numbers were, as it is only a year later and it seems to be in it's clearance bin death throws.
Let's not forget Moose Toys have been in this situation with a keshi-inspired toyline many times before. We can remember The Trash Pack as well as Fistful of Power before that, met the same fate, so I wonder if this is it with Moose Toys and minifigures. The good news is they still have Shopkins and Uggly's Pet Shop still going to this day, but Mutant Mania was aimed directly as the Kinnikuman audience and failed just over a year. Would they look at their mistakes and take another shot or move away, maybe to return in some time in the distant future?
We can all take a look into our crystal balls and make our guesses, but what's not to say other keshi-inspired toylines will fall with them? It always seems when you add a new feature or modernize it up a bit, it takes away from the appeal. When it pulls away from creative character design and sculpting, what product is really for sale? Keep it simple and beautiful, I say. Don't cut up the sculpt. Don't dig out it's back. Don't make some ridiculous rubber barbell spine that looks out of place, and don't try to sell me on anything but well-crafted keshi minifigures, because I'm not sure it'll be that successful.
I really enjoyed the Mutant Mania toys and wish Moose kept 'em going. I cannot get how it wasn't a big hit. There are so many combos. You can make new characters and it was fun to see the variations. I think they were well sculpted, had great names, great package design, and a great website. I guess I'm one of the few that liked them. Maybe they did well, but not well enough to keep it going. Moose probably expected more profits from the property.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I loved MUSCLES. But Mutant Manias were well sculpted, well painted and pose-able.
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