I had this book for less than 24 hours. I didn't take time to take pictures. I took my time to do what I needed to do with it and sent it on its way. It's obvious this book has been through more than 20 people before it came to me and I'm interested to see just what shape it'll be in when it completes its journey. When this book was announced all I wanted was a chance to hold it and see it because I knew there was no way I'd be getting it due to the limited printing and because of it being a Comic Con exclusive. I must give thanks where its appropriate: thanks for Frogster for getting the book to me, thanks to Super He-Man for keeping the book going after I sent it to him and most importantly thanks to Josh Van Pelt for sticking his neck (money) and his trust out to us who signed up for the loan program. Of course, everyone who has participated and adhered to the agreement to keep the book moving and not being too greedy about it deserves credit for this as well.
To me this movement right here shows Mattel and everyone else involved in making this book that the 1,000 copy run on an SDCC exclusive and the lack of enforcement for a purchase limit on this sought after piece was utterly ridiculous. I'm sure I'm not alone in questioning and not completely understanding what kind of legal implications could put such a restriction on a book's printing. We all know that answer will never be straightfoward and as honest as we'd like it to be. Maybe when it comes time again for something like this to come up, they'll treat us devoted fans right.
We might get 2,000 copies. LOL
Peace,
Brandon Wall
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Borrower #... oh, let's go with 6.
Well, like many of you, I believed this day would never come. I returned home from a weekend away to find a large, puffy envelope crammed unceremoniously into my apartment's mailbox. For those keeping track, this was Monday, April 26th. Truth be told, I had kind of given up hope. But, sho'nuff, there it was.
This is me, just after opening the envelope.
Inside the envelope was another envelope, made up by the man himself, Mr. Josh van Pelt who made all of this possible. It's a large photo copy of the cover, with 50 spots for each of we borrowers to sign. The first four were filled in, but the borrower immediately before me neglected to sign it. I seem to remember that the original # 5 on the list, Sunspot, had at some time ceased to exist, so I left #5 blank for Hordeall and put my John Hancock at slot #6.
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the book
So I got to feast my orbs on the book's contents, finally. Let me again pause to thank Josh for making this all possible. There is a lot of cool stuff to be found inside, particularly the early sketches relating to the genesis of the vintage line. Frankly, I wish that there were more of that. The book also has chapters related to New Adventures, 200X, Powers of Grayskull and of course, MOTUC. There's also some hypothetical sketches for the hypothetical movie, but, whatever, I think we all realize that is they ever do make a movie, the likelihood of this early, early concept work even being used in the slightest is pretty damned slight. Strangely, IMO, no Princess of Power stuff. I suppose that is for a future artbook volume, but that would certainly a disproportionate amount of material for one book. We had all these eras of Masters crammed into one book, but the, what, 2, 3 year run of POP would get its own volume? I wish that each era of Masters got its own art book, one for vintage, one for classics, etc., but oh well.
A brief tease of what awaits you, future borrowers!
In short, I'm glad I got to read it (and make some scans for personal use) but I'm also glad I didn't pay for it. It's nice, but for me at least, hard to justify the steep price tag.
Fun story: I intended to ship this out Monday the 3rd, one week to the day after I got it (though I guess I actually got it Saturday, when I was away). I live in Brooklyn, NY, which has the worst post offices known to man. I walk over to my local post office on Monday, and it's closed-- emergency renovations! Same thing Tuesday-- apparently this is going to be along term thing. I was beginning to believe that this book had a curse on it, that prevented it from moving on in a timely fashion. Finally, today, Thursday the 6th, I biked over to a sketchy post office in a sketchy stretch of town to send this thing out. The last time I had been to this particular office, a crazy religious guy cut me on line-- when I said something he called me a devil and tried to attack me. Obviously, not a place I looked to go back to. However, today, I was in and out in under 5 minutes (fellow Brooklynites will know how unheard of this is) and everyone in the Post Office was sweetness and light. Curse lifted , I declare.
Borrower #6, George (geooco) O'Connor, signing off.
This is me, just after opening the envelope.
Inside the envelope was another envelope, made up by the man himself, Mr. Josh van Pelt who made all of this possible. It's a large photo copy of the cover, with 50 spots for each of we borrowers to sign. The first four were filled in, but the borrower immediately before me neglected to sign it. I seem to remember that the original # 5 on the list, Sunspot, had at some time ceased to exist, so I left #5 blank for Hordeall and put my John Hancock at slot #6.
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the book
So I got to feast my orbs on the book's contents, finally. Let me again pause to thank Josh for making this all possible. There is a lot of cool stuff to be found inside, particularly the early sketches relating to the genesis of the vintage line. Frankly, I wish that there were more of that. The book also has chapters related to New Adventures, 200X, Powers of Grayskull and of course, MOTUC. There's also some hypothetical sketches for the hypothetical movie, but, whatever, I think we all realize that is they ever do make a movie, the likelihood of this early, early concept work even being used in the slightest is pretty damned slight. Strangely, IMO, no Princess of Power stuff. I suppose that is for a future artbook volume, but that would certainly a disproportionate amount of material for one book. We had all these eras of Masters crammed into one book, but the, what, 2, 3 year run of POP would get its own volume? I wish that each era of Masters got its own art book, one for vintage, one for classics, etc., but oh well.
A brief tease of what awaits you, future borrowers!
In short, I'm glad I got to read it (and make some scans for personal use) but I'm also glad I didn't pay for it. It's nice, but for me at least, hard to justify the steep price tag.
Fun story: I intended to ship this out Monday the 3rd, one week to the day after I got it (though I guess I actually got it Saturday, when I was away). I live in Brooklyn, NY, which has the worst post offices known to man. I walk over to my local post office on Monday, and it's closed-- emergency renovations! Same thing Tuesday-- apparently this is going to be along term thing. I was beginning to believe that this book had a curse on it, that prevented it from moving on in a timely fashion. Finally, today, Thursday the 6th, I biked over to a sketchy post office in a sketchy stretch of town to send this thing out. The last time I had been to this particular office, a crazy religious guy cut me on line-- when I said something he called me a devil and tried to attack me. Obviously, not a place I looked to go back to. However, today, I was in and out in under 5 minutes (fellow Brooklynites will know how unheard of this is) and everyone in the Post Office was sweetness and light. Curse lifted , I declare.
Borrower #6, George (geooco) O'Connor, signing off.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Borrower #1 Josh Van Pelt
The book measures about 8" by 11.5", has a soft cover, and has 53 full-color pages. It was limited to 1000 pieces, each with a foil-stamped ribbon over the front cover as well as the number stamped on the back cover. It is broken into sections starting with very early conceptual documents and sketches and goes all the way up to proposed artwork for a yet to be made movie.
From page one you know that you are going to enjoy this. Every He-Man fan can find something they haven't seen before. My personal favorites are the original Mark Taylor character sketches. It would have been cool to have some commentary by some of the creators of the line such as Mark Taylor & Roger Sweet.
This book is really something that Mattel should have done much earlier and on a larger scale. Each section has amazing documentation, photographs and artwork related to MOTU, The New Adventures, the "Modern Line", The Classics, and a section called "the Future". The shame is that over 25 years worth of history is condensed and presented in such a short format. Although it is cool to see so many early designs and a few prototypes, I am left thinking about the thousands of pieces that we don't get to see. After going through this book on a few occasions the past few months my final reaction is... I want a Volume 2!
Not much of a review but there are 49 more "borrowers" who will each be able to add their thoughts, comments, and highlights. The is on its way to its next steward, MMANOR from the he-man.org forums.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Book Is In The Mail
If you are reading this you are probably already a fan of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. You may also be aware that Mattel offered a very limited Art Book at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. I will not get into the details but as you can imagine most of these books never made it to the true MOTU fans who have kept this line alive for over 25 years.
After I purchased a copy for myself on eBay for $150 (plus shipping) I realized that it was a shame that such a rare item would sit on my shelf for my eyes only. With thousands of fans unable to get this book for a reasonable price I decided that I would purchase a book and share it with as much of the community as I could. I refused to buy a book at the $100+ that most eBay sellers are looking to get and waited... and waited.
Needless to say I finally found one - number 0572 to be exact. On 1/9/2010 I posted this thread on the He-Man.org forums. http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showthread.php?p=2303542&posted=1#post2303542
This blog will follow the journey of this lone book as it shares it's awesome artwork and design from the early days of MOTU all the way up to the much anticipated rumored live action movie.
The first post tomorrow will be my reactions to the book along with a quick review. Then, once each fan has had a chance to enjoy the book for their week, he/ she will be able to add their own post.
I hope you enjoy!
Josh
After I purchased a copy for myself on eBay for $150 (plus shipping) I realized that it was a shame that such a rare item would sit on my shelf for my eyes only. With thousands of fans unable to get this book for a reasonable price I decided that I would purchase a book and share it with as much of the community as I could. I refused to buy a book at the $100+ that most eBay sellers are looking to get and waited... and waited.
Needless to say I finally found one - number 0572 to be exact. On 1/9/2010 I posted this thread on the He-Man.org forums. http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showthread.php?p=2303542&posted=1#post2303542
This blog will follow the journey of this lone book as it shares it's awesome artwork and design from the early days of MOTU all the way up to the much anticipated rumored live action movie.
The first post tomorrow will be my reactions to the book along with a quick review. Then, once each fan has had a chance to enjoy the book for their week, he/ she will be able to add their own post.
I hope you enjoy!
Josh
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