[Darkspecter]

Thanks for the kind words, ludovicotek.

I don't know what else to say about Might-Bite except Mattel does not own the rights to him. Mattel owns the rights to everything that appeared IN the MVC comics. Since Illumina's ad appeared in three separate issues 8 years ago, they own her.

Might-Bite was created by Emiliano and only appeared via his blog. Mattel had a very strange deal with MVC and it's very complicated, but Emiliano was hired on as a freelance for MVC and never signed any contracts or non-disclosures, etc. with Mattel. So all work he did that did not make it into the book is still sole property of himself (unlike direct employees hired by Mattel or if Mattel specifically hired him as a freelancer). I really don't like talking about legal stuff because it's so complex and annoying.

Technically, Mattel does not own the rights to all the story ideas in MVC's 200X Bible as it was never submitted to Mattel until the MOTUC toy line was going to happen. It was given to Toyguru as a "good faith" gift.

Mattel also can't make MOTUC figures of the concept art drawn by Mattel employees in the 80's unless the specifically own the piece of art. So, all the stuff you see in Tomarts magazine and The Power & Honor Fondation's Volume 1 catalog are also off limits (Horde Mummy, the Witch, etc.). I'm not sure if Mattel legal will change their position on that in the future, though. Supposedly they need to inspect the art to make sure it's official and have it on record if there are ever any legal disputes regarding the character. *shrugs*

Illumina is not fan-fiction at all, as she appeared in a licensed, Mattel product. She had a full story line and everything developed. Learning more about what happened near the end of the 200X comic, it was revealed why she never happened: Trademarks.

Earlier in the MVC comic you would see all these cool, new characters (like Mer-Man's arch enemy and they end up killing off each others entire species). They had names, but they were not trademarked. Mattel's legal team was A-ok with it and loved what the MVC crew was doing. Nearing the end of the series, Mattel's Girls Toy legal team took over and were very new to publishing. They were extremely "paranoid" of any name that was not trademarked. They were still 100% okay with new characters, but they were not allowed to call them by name, which made writing extremely difficult.

So, that's why Illumina never got into the comic: trademarks. It just would have been too difficult for them to do a story with a new central character and never being able to use her name.

Mattel knew MOTU was dying around the time and wouldn't spend any money on new trademarks. When the MYP cartoon ended, Mattel ended the license with MVC comics, even though it was still profitable. They just didn't see the point since the toy line and cartoon ended. MVC wanted to continue to do the comics until they could no longer pull a profit, but that was not to be.

I'm happy for the people who really wanted Demo-Man and Vikor (I really like them too), but they weren't really necessary. They're He-Man and Skeletor. That's what their designs looked like at the first stage. Mark Taylor was told they looked too much like Conan and to change them. Someone told him his toy line would get passed quicker if he made the main hero look like the President of Mattel...so he did. He-Man's face is made in the likeness of Mattel's President! Never seen a picture of him online though.

Gygor is in MOTUC because of Emiliano, believe it or not. He owns a LOT of early Mattel and Filmation concept work. He pieced together everything he found on Gygor and sent it over to Toyguru. That's how the 80's Big Jim Ape mock-up of Gygor was shown after the MOTUC Gygor figure was announced. Additional Gygor concepts can be found in the Power & Honor Foundation's Volume 1 Catalog (like the heroic Gygor that He-Man rides).

Illumina can't be submitted to Mattel in the Create-A-Figure contest as Mattel already owns the rights to her. That would be like submitting Jitsu to them.

Mattel actually did not own the rights to Fearless Photog any longer, as copyrights and trademarks expire (like how they lost the rights to "Fisto" for 200X and "Flipshot" in MOTUC). A couple fans gave Toyguru, Nathan Bitner's contact information. He got a hold of Nathan and asked if he would like his character to be released after all this time. He explained that they didn't have the budget to pay him, but reminded him that he got the $100 000 scholarship in the 80's and Mattel paid for his family's vacation for winning the contest. Nathan agreed to sign documents with Mattel giving them full ownership over Fearless Photog. Toyguru said Nathan helped with the bio and he's getting a sample case of Fearless Photog figures.

Toyguru was looking for contact information for the creators of all the other runners up too (Netta, BrainWave, Eye Beam and Compactor). I'm not sure if he still is or not.

If you don't like Illumina, that's totally fine. Everyone doesn't have to like the same things. I'm totally cool with that.

With the Fan Vote, Toyguru specifically said this is to help get the obscure, fan desired characters. This is one slot and will not push back Spikor, Ram-Man, etc. He actually created a thread on He-Man.org titled "I voted for Illumina!" and explained he actually created the Fan Vote contest FOR Illumina. He said he's pitched her to his bosses a few times and they've turned him down saying she's too obscure. Toyguru said if she wins this, she gets made no problem.

The MOTUC line also needs characters like Illumina to keep going. Each year is supposed to be a mix of major A-listers (like Sorceress, Fisto and Kobra Kahn for 2012), obscure stuff and the C and D listers. This keeps MOTUC alive and running. If they made all the A-listers at once, the line would die and we would be missing a lot of characters like Blast Attack, Rio-Blast, Ninjor, etc.