It’s Day 4 of FFZ held hostage by Masters of the Universe Classics! I know, it’s supposed to be Transformers Thursday, but Matty has a gun to my head right now and is insisting that we keep the purity of Masters Week by posting another Masters feature. Today we’re checking out another older figure that has been turning up for mighty cheap at various peddlers of plastics. Not coincidently, he is also one of the figures that has been showing up on the shelves at Big Lots around the country. I’ve had my eye on this figure ever since he was first offered by Matty, but he wasn’t one that I was willing to blow full retail on. Let’s find out why that was a terrible mistake.

What’s this? Beautiful Greyskull-inspired green stone packaging? Haven’t we seen this before? Why yes we have, over and over again, so let’s not dwell on it. I know very little about Count Marzo, only that he’s a wizard who turned up a couple of times in the MYP series and he seemed pretty cool. A buddy of mine informed me that he did appear in the Filmation cartoon but he didn’t look anything like this. Fortunately, this isn’t a Club Filmation feature, which means I don’t have to subject myself to watching that episode. Truth be told, I just wanted to pick up this guy to have a bad guy in my collection that didn’t look like a total freak and he certainly fits the bill. The back of the package has the usual bio and other figures in the line. Hey, look, a clean sweep! I actually have all of those!

So, straight up let me say that I am totally digging this figure! Everything about this guy feels fresh and unique. It’s funny how a relatively normal looking guy stands out in the MOTU Universe, but beyond the fact that he doesn’t have a skull face or elephant head, Marzo stands out because the sculpt is just phenomenal. The top half of the figure is just a regular buck, but it doesn’t look like it thanks to the large shoulder armor, chest armor, and cape all sculpted as one piece and placed over the figure’s neck. He has a standard MOTU bracer on his right wrist and a newly sculpted one on his left. The waist down uses a soft plastic belt and skirt layered onto the buck and he’s got a simple pair of boots. The costume looks amazing! It’s quite clever how they were able to build it off a regular buck and the design offers a great sci-fi and medieval combo that feels right at home on the MOTUC shelf.

And then there’s that portrait. Wow! Besides being a great modern update to the MYP character design, this has got to be one of the best head sculpts the MOTUC series has offered. The furled brow, the long blowing hair, the sinister ‘stache and beard… this guy looks epic.

Marzo comes with two accessories. You get his magic amulet and a sword. The amulet can be wielded in his left hand, much the same way we saw with Nepthu and The Faceless One. The sword is a great looking piece and it’s a nice surprise to find one bundled with a wizard. Aren’t Eternian magic users supposed to have staves or wands? Pfft! Marzo cares not for your stereotypes. What’s even better is that Marzo has a clip sculpted into his skirt that allows him to wear the sword quite comfortably. It’s brilliant.

Needless to say, I friggin adore this figure. He’s wonderfully executed and he makes a great addition to my MOTUC shelves. In my mind, I’ve already set him apart as a villain for Vikor and Battleground Teela to fight, as those figures sort of hover outside my mainstream continuity of this line. It’s crazy to think I held out on him, because I think he would have been well worth the $27 had I picked him up Day of Sale on Matty Collector. Still, I won’t complain about having grabbed him for around $13. Right now this guy is pretty high on my list of favorite figures in the line, and a line of figures as good as this one, that’s pretty high praise.

Tomorrow, we’ll start wrapping up this Masters Week nonsense with the first part of my look at The Palace Guard 2-pack.

We’re moving into Day 3 of Matty Cyber Week and today we’re checking out The Hurricane! No, not Hurricane Rubin Carter… it’s Hurricane Hordak! I’m actually cheating a bit today because I did not in fact get Hurricane Hordak from Matty’s Sale. I did, however, get him for a ridiculously cheap price from Amazon many weeks back and he’s been sitting around waiting to be opened and featured. So why not just toss him in here, eh?

Hordak comes in the same awesome packaging we’ve been seeing all week. You’ll also note that he’s one of these “Original” reissues. I’m kind of surprised Matty did a second run on this guy because I don’t think he sold for shit, but then that would explain why he’s populating the shelves of Big Lots all over the country. Even I wouldn’t buy him until he got down to near $10 shipped, and I’m a lunatic with no concept of the value of money. Nope, even I think this line is too expensive to be worried about picking up a lot of variants of the same character. In fact, the only reason I own Battle Armor He-Man is because I started collecting the line late and he was the only He-Man figure available at the time. As always, the back of the package shows off other figures in the line. Hey, there’s Leech. I passed on him when he was first offered because I don’t think he looked that good. Now, he’s a bit pricey on the secondary market and I really want him and will probably pick him up off of Ebay at a premium. Jesus, I’m my own worst enemy. I shouldn’t be allowed to have money.

So, Hurricane Hordak is a quick-and-dirty cash-grab that takes the same Hordak figure, does a little resculpty here and there, blings him out with some shiny gold armor and a new gun arm with more attachments than one of those $500 Dyson vacuum cleaners. Well, it’s three attachments, but it seems like a lot. I’m not holding any of that against the figure. Those of us that bought him knew what we were getting into. Plus, he is indeed a modern treatment of an actual vintage character, so it’s not like Matty made him up for the Classics line or anything. I’ve already looked at Hordak ages ago, so I’m just going to touch on what’s new here.

The new armor is vac-metal and allows all of Hordak’s foes to know when he’s coming even when he’s still miles away. It’s seriously shiny and despite a lot of collectors griping about it chipping, mine hasn’t chipped at all… yet. I would imagine that will change in time. It is removable, but because of the aforementioned chipping hazard, I wouldn’t recommend taking it off frequently. Other than the armor, the legs, head, and left arm are all pretty much what we got when we bought the first Hordak with just some minor variations to the paint. Hurricane Hordak is missing some of the grey painted fringe on the boots and cowl. The biggest change to the actual figure is the resculpted right arm that takes away Hordak’s hand and replaces it with a gun barrel. I dig this a lot because in the Filmation cartoon he could turn his arm into a cannon and this is probably the best homage to that we’ll see in the Classics figure line. Of course, the barrel is not meant to be left empty, that’s where you attach all his crazy spinning weapons.

How about those attachments? You get a three-pronged thing with balls on the end. There balls have what appears to be sculpted lightning or energy on them, but without a paint app to make it look right it kind of looks like the balls have veins. Ewww. You also get a four-pronged thingy with blades angled out. Lastly, you get a propeller-style attachment that’s vaguely sculpted after the Horde insignia. They all just pop right into the hole at the end of the arm and some of them can be a bitch to get out. I should also note that while the spinning gimmick isn’t there, Mattel still sculpted a fake thumb wheel into the back of Hordak’s armor like the vintage figure had. I dig that!

All in all, Hurricane Hordak is a decent enough figure. It’s a nice homage to the vintage figure, even if it has been stripped of the very action gimmick that gave the figure purpose. No, the truth is that my only complaint with this guy is that I never would have laid out the $25-27 he went for when offered at Matty Collector. I picked mine up at Amazon for $13.99 with free shipping and that seems about right. Even still, I’m a Club Eternia subber for 2014, so there’s a good chance that when my MOTUC shelves start getting congested, Hurricane Hordak here will be the first to be bumped into the storage drawer with all the MOTUC accessories.

I hope y’all like MOTU Classics, folks, because it’s that time of the year for FFZ’s Matty Cyber Monday Week! All this week I’ll be checking out the figures I picked up from this year’s Cyber Sale over at Matty Collector. I’ll be honest, the sale wasn’t nearly as good this year. The discounts weren’t as deep and the few flash sales of figures that I wanted were a bust. Webstor was sold before I could get to checkout and as for Kobra Khan, well I went into the checkout with him and some DCUC stands and came away with the DCUC stands and a second King Hsss. I’d like to blame Matty for that, but to be fair I was trying to place the order on my phone, while it was being concealed under a table, during a rather important District Management meeting at work, so I’ll just shoulder some of the blame for that one. Anywho, I did come away with some figures I needed and while the prices weren’t stellar, they were better than going to Ebay. We’re kicking off this week with Stratos.

There’s the packaging! Tuck in, kiddies, we’re going to be seeing a lot of that green stonework this week. I don’t have a lot to say except Stratos has that “The Original!” explosion on the front, which in Matty speak means the exact opposite. This was a re-issue from back when Matty was doing repeat runs on some of these figures. I was very surprised to see Stratos at the sale, seeing as even this re-release was put up for sale way back in early to mid 2011. He’s a nagging figure for me that has been on my want list for a while, more because I consider him to be one of the core characters, and therefore essential, rather than because I have any great deal of affection for him. The closest I’ve ever come to having any feelings toward the character at all was in the MYP series and that was just because he sounded like he was doing a bad Sean Connery impersonation and that made me giggle every time he talked. I know, not exactly a ringing endorsement for this purchase, but it shows how my OCD sometimes bleeds into my collecting habits. Anyway, I don’t usually bother with the bios, but in this case there’s something in there that I never really connected with Stratos. The bio refers to him as a “winged simian.” HOLY SHIT, STRATOS IS A FLYING MONKEY??? How did I miss that all these years??? Maybe I’ve underestimated this guy!

So, the thing about this figure is that I like it, I just don’t love it. There’s really nothing inherently wrong with him, except for his loosey-goosey joints. Seriously, this figure flops all over the place. It seems to be an issue with a lot of the early releases in the line. I fear he’s going to be at the heart of many figure-avalanches in my display case. Nevertheless, he’s got a nice grey buck with sculpted hair, gorilla like claws, and there’s certainly a simian affect to his mouth and beard. The head sculpt is actually kind of soft and it looks a bit dated when compared to the more recent releases. His mask is what it is, I’ve never been overly fond of the design, but it’s OK. I should point out a bit of a QC issue on mine, there’s a chip to the flesh paint on his nose.

Stratos features a set of red feathery wings, which are permanently attached to his arms via his wrist bracers. They’re nicely sculpted, but it’s hard to really pose him in a position that makes them look credible as the means of flight. I guess they’re just for decoration anyway, since the guy has a magical Emerald Staff and a jetpack to actually make him fly. I think the wings work well as shields. I can see him deflecting laser blasts with them.

Speaking of jetpacks, yes Stratos has a harness that holds his jetpack onto his back. It’s a simple sculpt with some feathers added at the shoulders and all cast in blue soft plastic. I dig the look of the jetpack. It’s very retro sci-fi and evokes just a little bit of Buck Rogers for me. As for the colors, the blue of the harness matches his furry diaper and contrasts pretty nicely with the red wings and belt and the grey buck to give Stratos a rather subdued, but still attractive, deco.

I think the thing that bugs me the most about this figure is the lack of accessories. I suppose you could argue the extra plastic went into the wings and jetpack, and I can’t recall whether the original vintage figure had any weapons. My only experience with the vintage figures was going over my best friend’s house and playing with his MOTU collection and he always had all the weapons piled in a heap. My point is, give him something: A battle axe, a sword, a goddamn ray gun. What about that Emerald Staff? I’m just looking for some accessories over here, eh? I suppose that’s what the weapons packs are for.

I searched for Stratos on Ebay every now and again and he was always running in the $30’s plus shipping, which was just out of the range that I was willing to pay for a character I don’t care much about, but still had to have in my collection. As a result, the $17 he went for during Matty’s Sale seemed to hit that certain sweet spot. Plus, since I was ordering a bunch of figures, I only factored in a couple of bucks for his shipping. He’s not at all a bad figure, just not a terribly exciting one for me. And yet putting him into my Masters display has certainly given me a sense of satisfaction and closure.

Tomorrow, Matty Cyber Week continues with King Hsss!