It’s been a couple of months since I last reviewed anything from the Masters Origins line, and that’s just wrong! My backlog for this line is pretty severe, so let’s dig back in with a look at a vehicle! Because if there’s anything that’s more wacky than the inhabitants of Eternia, it’s the crazy vehicles they try to kill each other with. So far Skeletor’s evil garage already has the Land Shark parked in there, and now it’s time to make room for The Roton!
The Roton comes in a glorious window box with some lovely vintage style art and the 40th Anniversary foil sticker on the right hand corner of the back flap. This vehicle started life as a Walmart Exclusive and I dropped my pre-order the moment it went live. Then my order sat in limbo until Walmart decided to cancel it. Holy shit, do I hate Walmart Exclusives! The toy spent a while going for double on the secondary scalper market before it started turning up at some other online retailers and I was eventually able to get one. And thank God for that, because I was getting ready to feed the scalpers on this one! The basic vehicle comes out of the box all ready for action, so let’s see what we’ve got.
What do you get when you combine a bumper car with a buzzsaw and then give it some creepy monster eyes? The Roton, of course! The vehicle’s black glossy body features a partially sculpted spinal column on the back and a hideous monster face on the front. Stickered panels adorn the sides with what looks like green reptilian skin fused with circuitry and dark magic tech from the bowels of Snake Mountain. The driver’s cabin is just one big bench seat with two joysticks, and there’s a pair of red laser guns, which can each swivel to fire in just about any direction. If I had one nitpick, I wish there were some dashboard stickers in there showing a few control panels.
Around the center of this devilish dodge-em car is the red buzz saw blade, which spins as you push the vehicle along, while also making a nerve-racking clicking noise, which is probably the last thing a lot of Eternian do-gooders hear before being diced into pieces by this engine of hell. And then there’s the eyes. The stickered eyes are just generally unsettling with red bloodshot pupils and fibrous veins protruding from the corners. Are these just the Eternian version of nose art, or is this thing actually a fusion of machine and monster? No, don’t answer. I don’t want to know!
The seat has plenty of room for most Origins figures, but Skeletor is the obvious choice. It’s no secret that the Origins figures aren’t all that great at sitting down, but it works pretty well. There’s something about Skeletor sitting in this thing that just scratches that toyetic itch so brilliantly. It’s just a glorious pairing of blue and purple Skeleton Lord with black and red killing machine. Roton was an inspired toy in the vintage line, and it still is today in the Origins revival. But we’re not done yet!
The designers went back to the vintage Monogram model kit and added the armored face plate and driver’s cage and boy is this going above and beyond! Both pieces are cast in beautiful red plastic and you get some white pate on the face plate for the eyes and teeth. Both pieces peg in securely and just add a wonderful display option or even a way to create variations if you happen to have more than one Roton for your collection. Sure, I would have rather had a Skelcon figure like the one included with the Classics Roton, but recreating the pieces from the Monogram model makes this release all the more unique.
The Classics vehicle came with a stand, which is sadly lacking from this release. Now, you could argue that this is a ground vehicle so why include a stand, but I’d like to think this is capable of flight too. For what it’s worth, there is a socket underneath the Roton that is compatible with the stand that came bundled with the Wind Raider.
I got my Roton for $35, which feels a little pricey compared to some of the other Origins vehicles, but then I was so happy to be able to finally get one, I didn’t hesitate over the price. I was hoping this one would eventually get down to the Wind Raider prices, because that hits below $20 every now and then on Amazon and I have about half dozen of the damn things. I’d love to pick up at least one more, but only if it went on sale, and that doesn’t seem likely at this point. Either way, this is a fantastic toy and a welcome addition to Skeletor’s crazy fleet of attack vehicles.