It was a busy week for MOTU Origins around here. Not only did I get a few of the new Cartoon Series figures in, but I also cleaned up on some old business with the main Origins line. Moss Man was a Wal-Mart Exclusive, which meant I never had a chance of seeing him at the stores here. A lot of people must have been in the same boat because he was going for crazy money on Ebay and the like. And then inexplicably he started turning up on Clearance and even at places like Ollies. And that’s a beautiful illustration of horrible distribution and why these exclusives are a terrible idea. In the end, people started scalping the figures they found on Clearance and in the end that meant I was able to get him for the original price, even with shipping. So let’s check him out!

Moss Man is a Deluxe, but instead of coming in one of those oversized cards and bubbles, he comes boxed and this makes for some very nice presentation. The window shows off the figure and all the extras inside while you still get an elongated back flap with some of that gorgeous retro-inspired artwork. But then turn the box over and and let your peepers be assaulted by even more vintage art goodness. The box also touts him as a Collectors Edition with pine scent, making me wonder if a sealed card would have been the better way to go in order to lock in all that pine freshness! Everything here is collector friendly, and while I love the box, I haven’t decided whether to keep it or not.

Moss Man comes with armor, and we’ll get to that in a bit, but let’s first check him out as God intended, with just his belt and furry diaper. Besides, I don’t want any of that armor to get in the way of the beauty that is this flock job, and I mean that in every conceivable way. For starters, the coverage here is superb. From the front, you can barely see any of the jointing, and even from the back it’s mostly just evident in the knee and ankle joints. Sure, the more extreme you work the hinges, the more of that plastic will peek through, but it really is an amazing piece of work, especially for a retail figure. I also really dig the way the musculature in the chest and back still shows through the flocking. And finally, the coloring of the flocking itself is wonderfully dynamic. The closer you get, the more you can make out the mixes of green with a little brown. It’s also strangely soothing to stroke his mossy fur with my finger. As for that pine sent, it’s evident but not overwhelming. The question will be how long will it last?

The yellow armor pieces are repaints of Beast Man’s armor, just like Moss Man was a flocked Beast Man. I’m far from an expert on vintage MOTU, but as I understand it the yellow Beast Man armor was included in a weapons pack and tended to gravitate toward Moss Man figures in many collectors. Enough that it became associated with him. The chest and collar piece tabs together in the back and the bicep armor just slides on with friction keeping them on. It’s all cast in the same yellow plastic and there’s some black paint apps on the chest piece making it look like it’s been burned. I do think these look really good on the figure, but I’m not sure whether I will display him with the armor or not.

You get two heads to choose from, and this is kind of a no-brainer for me. The stock head is very similar to a flocked Beast Man head, without being a straight repurpose, and this is the one that will always be on my figure. The flocking encompasses the whole head, minus the face and just like the body, it looks great. I’ve gone on record in the past by saying the vintage Beast Man head sculpt is one of the ugliest and most unintentionally funny action figure noggins I can remember, and that still holds true here, but I think the unified green color scheme helps it along. The big difference between Beast Man and this Moss Man is the mouth bearing his copious fangs. The eyes are painted in with large black pupils, and I’m really impressed at how sharp the line around the face between plastic and flock turned out.

Now, that’s not to say the alternate head isn’t really good. In fact, it’s quite awesome. It’s full of character and basically looks like a green gorilla with mutton chops. That ain’t a bad thing! The mouth is open a lot wider, showing off those awesome teeth, and the bald head and slight forehead ridge gives me some slight Klingon vibes. I love what we got here, but it just isn’t Moss Man to me. Had the figure been more widely available, I might have picked up a second to leave unarmored and wearing this had as just some mossy minion.

Moss Man comes with two weapons, and an extra left gripping hand so he can dual wield. The first weapon, a brown flanged mace, is a nod to the vintage figure’s accessory. It has a diamond-shaped ring at the pommel and a knuckle guard loop around the grip.

Additionally, you get the spiked ball flail that we’ve seen a few times before in this line, and it’s always nice to see this weapon turn up, especially as an extra piece. I did find that the gripping hands on my figure are a little loose on these accessories and squeezing them shut a bit more helps keep them in his hands.

As much as I adore this line, I have a rule with MOTU Origins, that I’m not playing Mattel’s game and hunting down exclusives at stores or online at Mattel Creations, and I’m not feeding scalpers and paying premiums. I already jumped through a lot of hoops to get a nearly complete set of MOTU Classics and I’m not doing it all over again. Case in point, I didn’t even bother going after Night Stalker yesterday. I have Stridor and I’m content with that. Now, I guess you could argue that in this case I did feed a scalper by paying regular retail for a figure he probably got for $6 at an Ollies, but I was willing to make an exception since it was still a little less than original retail. And I’m glad I did, because this figure is absolutely amazing. And don’t worry, I still have more than a few figures in this line to check out here, but next time we’ll switch over to the Cartoon Series for a bit!