Hot damn, Mattel sure is bringing their A-game to the 2014 Sub! It’s only been a month since the incredible Two Bad graced my doorstep and now we’re getting the mind-blowingly amazing Modulok. This crazy figure was one I never thought would ever happen in the Classics line and I’m so very glad to be proven wrong on that. It’s still hard to believe I’m holding the box in my hands. But with two such heavy hitters lined up for the first two months of the Sub, and Glimmer thrown in there too, I can’t help but wonder… is Matty shooting his entire load too early? Why the hell did I have to go and put an image of Matty masturbating into my head?  Arghh! Get out of my head! Quick, let’s jump straight to the packaging!!!

With Modulok confirmed, my first ponderings went to how he was going to be packaged. Surely he was going to be too big to fit into the regular card and bubble affair. And yet he wasn’t going to be big enough for a beast package either. The answer is he comes in a totally enclosed box and this made me very happy. I certainly have no complaints about the regular card and bubbles Matty uses for this line, but I’ll happily take any opportunity we can get for a box with some old school artwork. The front of the box has a great rendering of Modulok with all sorts of different combinations of him in the background. The back panel has his bio along with other figures in the line. The only gripe I have with this package is that the flaps are all glued shut and so I had to cut one of the flaps to get it open. I seem to recall a lot of collectors pissed about this with their Back to the Future Hoverboards. Tape, Matty! Ever hear of tape??? I know you have, because you used it on all your other MOTUC boxes. Anyway, this box sure seems rather thin to contain an action figure of Modulok’s bizarre stature.

And that’s because Modulok comes only partially assembled and with his various parts surrounding a core, humanoid figure. This was a great way to go because it makes you build him for the first time and really explore what Modulok is all about. Even if you just got this guy to stand on your display shelf, you’ll still get the fun of putting him together. It also gives a great sense of just how many pieces and combinations are available. Because of Modulok’s nature, this can’t be any kind of traditional MOTUC figure review because he really isn’t one figure. In fact, as soon as I got him out of the box I started having a ball mixing and matching his parts.

Of course, Modulok does have an official build, and there he is… creepy as all hell. I don’t remember being nearly this creeped out by him as a kid, but then that was before I was exposed to something called The Human Centipede. There are no instructions on how to build him into this form, but it’s not too hard to figure out if you use the box as a reference. I actually kind of dig the lack of instructions because it’s like Mattel saying, “there are no instructions because he’s whatever you want him to be. There are no wrong answers, kids!” The plastic used here is very similar to the regular MOTUC figures. For some reason I didn’t expect Modulok to fit well with the rest of the line, but he feels right at home on one of my Masters shelves. Building him in this form leaves some extra pieces, but it’s easy to throw on a couple more arms.

Modulok comes with a pair of guns that can be combined into one big gun. Or is that one big gun that splits into two little guns? Either way, he can hold it best with his regular fingered hands, but if you’re persistent it will also work with his clawed hands… sort of.

While Modulok’s official build is a great display piece for my collection, the real fun with this figure is found in experimenting. The other day I had a movie on and I spent virtually the whole two hours popping bits off and other bits on. With so many parts and so many combinations I found myself only limited by my twisted imagination. Playing with Modulok is very much like playing the PC game Spore only in action figure form. The fact that you can build him into two figures is pretty damn cool as well.

As a subber, Modulok set me back $40, which seemed rather high at the time. I think a lot of that was the sticker shock of seeing him plus Glimmer plus shipping and tax hitting $80+. As a result, it’s more accurate to say that I paid about $55 for him when all was said and done. A premium? Yes, but with re-sellers offering him at up to $100, it seems like a bargain in comparison. Even if my plan was just to display him on my shelf, I’d still be content enough with the price. He’s a great looking figure and manages to stand out even on a shelf populated by total freaks. But unlike most of my MOTUC figures that stand on display shelves and get moved around once in a blue moon when I dust or rework the display, Modulok is a figure that I’m going to be playing around with a lot. Like a Rubik’s Cube or a good Transformer, he’s a toy that begs me to fiddle around with him even if my attention is on something else. I was talking on the phone the other day and by the time the call was ended I was barely aware of the fact that I had broken him down into all his parts, and so I gleefully started building him again. FUN!  He may be one of the most atypical MOTUC figures to date, but it also makes him one of the coolest!