It’s the MOTUC packaging we’ve seen a bunch of times here on FigureFan. I didn’t comment much on the deco yesterday, so let me just point out how awesome it still looks. I’m glad Matty hasn’t monkeyed with the design over the last couple of years, because they came up with a winner right out of the gate. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Granted, my MOTUC packages wind up shredded and in the garbage, but if ever there was a line of figures that I wouldn’t mind hanging on my wall mint-on-card, this would certainly be one of them.

Of course, Grizzlor’s gimmick is that he’s a hairy bastard and Mattel went all out with giving him real hair, just like the vintage toy. It was a bold move in an Adult Collector line, but if you ask me it was the only way they could go. How’d it turn out? Well… let’s take a look.

My first impression when looking at Grizzlor is… Norfin Troll. Sorry, Mattel, but I can’t get that image out of my mind. It’s like I should be rubbing his head for luck or something. His fur is just all over the place and at first it looks kind of awkward and funny, but then something tells me Grizzlor isn’t the kind of dude who would be combing himself out every day. His hair should be all over the place like a bad case of perpetual bed head. I think the weirdest thing about the figure is the blending of real hair and the sculpted hair on his arms and legs. The two don’t necessarily mesh all that well, but I’m trying not to be too critical here, because in the end, I think Grizzlor’s real hair works pretty well.

The face sculpt is classic. It’s probably not one of this line’s better sculpts, but the combination of fangs, red and yellow eyes, and his little smooshed ape nose all conspire to give Grizzlor a ton of personality. It’s kind of hard to figure out whether Grizzlor’s face is scary or cute, but I can’t deny that it is distinctive.

Grizzlor comes wearing his Horde harness with the huge sculpted Horde crest on the front and a backpack that can hold his impressive arsenal of weaponry, but we’ll get to that in a bit. He also comes with a sculpted primitive looking loin cloth, which I believe is intended to be closer to his 200x version. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 200x Grizzlor, so I’m taking a friend’s word on that. I think these accessories are intended to be worn in an “either-or” configuration, but I don’t think he looks at all bad when wearing both. And there’s no way I’m going to display him without that great backpack to hold all his killing gear. In the end, though, I think I’ll leave the loincloth piece off.

As far as articulation goes, Grizzlor doesn’t sacrifice any poseability in favor of his furry coat. You still get ball joints in the neck and shoulders; the arms are hinged at the elbows and have swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs are ball jointed and have swivels at the hips, hinges in the knees and ankles, and rockers in the ankles. I can’t be certain, but it feels like he’s still got the ab crunch going on in there too, and he can still swivel at the waist as well.

One wouldn’t think that a giant, hairy beast would need a lot of weapons to go rampaging; nevertheless, Grizzlor packs himself out like he’s going to war. He comes with a long sword and a smaller chopping sword, both with matching hilts. He also comes with a battle axe and a Horde crossbow. And as mentioned above, all of it fits onto his backpack. God, I love that!

As it turns out, I dig Grizzlor a lot, although I think he’s one of those figures that you kind of have to want to like him going in. At the original $28-30 with shipping, I’m not sure I would have been quite so happy, but at the $18-20 I got him for, he’s a lot more appetizing. Heck, even a good chunk of his cost can be defrayed by his awesome collection of weapons. Look, Grizzlor is a total goof and he’s hard to take seriously with all that hair all over the place, but I’m glad Mattel went the way they did with him, because he does pay homage to the original vintage figure quite nicely. To make Grizzlor with no hair would have been akin to making Moss-Man without the flocking. It just wouldn’t have worked at all. I basically bought him to add another Horde member to my ranks, and he’ll certainly look nice displayed beside my Hordak.