So, Mattel just took the comic away from MVC, and now, this.....
(From he-man.org's main page)
We have some troubling news to share with fans of He-Man.org.
It's come to our attention that Mattel may absorb He-Man.org.
Click here to see what other fans have to say about this.
It's actually something that Mattel has been pushing for over a year now, but they have never really acted on it.
Lately, we fear the worst.
One would think this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
It's also possible that it could be in Mattel's right to own He-Man.org, as the name He-Man is a federally owned trademark of Mattel's.
We're not sure where we stand legally since we've had this site in operation for many a year, prior to Mattel's refiling for the name and the relaunch of the brand. But it's not Mattel owning the domain name that troubles us.
What worries us is if Mattel owned He-Man.org, they might slowly tighten their grip on the site content itself until it's become part of their company and devoid of fan control/input.
Mattel claims this won't happen, but given everything we've seen over the past two years, we are very weary.
We've all fought very hard for MOTU.
This site was one of the biggest catalysts for the rebirth of MOTU.
It's the largest site for information and news on MOTU.
And we feel the only reason Mattel probably hasn't come in and forced it away from us is because they are scared of how fans will react.
We've stood by Mattel through a lot of things we don't necessarily agree with.
But please remember, there are a lot of good people at Mattel who fight for the fans and He-Man.org.
So cursing the company as a whole is wrong, because we blame everyone in the process... even those who are fighting the good fight. Still, it's the few people there that make the less-than-popular decisions that worry us. And it's only a few, but that's all it takes.
If it comes down to it, we'd rather move He-Man.org to a new domain rather than have a bunch of suits come in and take away what is an important part of many of our lives.
This is not only a MOTU resource, but a strong community where we all feel at home regardless of how long you've come here or how passionate of a fan you may be.
It sickens us to think of abandoning the name He-Man.org.
It's a recognizable name across the globe, even branded on shirts that many of you wear (and we thank you all for making those shirts a reality)
But if worse came to worst, we won't let Mattel take over this site.
We've seen Mattel ignore He-Man.org input (fans, creators, etc) in favor of some bad internal ideas... ideas that the company did eventually ended up using, but too late in the game.
We 've watched horrible case ratios clog the pegs.
We 've endured choices on less-than-spectacular non-Four Horsemen toy designs.
We 've witnessed bad time slots and presentation for the cartoon.
Some of which could be stopped, some of which was uncontrolable.
And now, we're fighting to keep the comic alive for the fans despite regulations that have made it almost impossible to maintain sales in a competitive comic industry.
(What is happening with the comic? It may disappear, even though MV wants to continue producing it. Please click here to read more about what is happening)
And despite it all, like many of you, we still fight for this brand.
We don't want it to end, even though we've been holding onto the crap end of a stick for longer than we would for anything else in this world.
If you want to share your opinion with Mattel, click here to e-mail them.
More importantly, we encourage every fan who attends Wizard World Chicago to stop by Mattel's booth and TELL them how you feel..
About how they've handled the toys...
About what you've seen with the cartoon...
About what you want to see done with the comic...
And how you feel about He-Man.org...
Be it good, bad, or a mixture, tell them how you feel....please...
Thanks everyone, for your time and understanding. This site wouldn't exist without you. Please help to keep it and Masters alive for years to come.
Jesus, what next?