Those of you who are getting a little weary of Matty’s reuse of parts on these figures, you’ll be happy to see that Trap Jaw is refreshingly new. The only obvious reuse is from He-Man’s pelvis, but even that is mostly covered by a new wide green belt with a sculpted skull and crossbones on it. See… I told you he was a pirate! He’s got new boots and legs, new arms, and naturally a new head… er, make that heads, plural, but we’ll get to that later. I also love the coloring on this figure. He’s mostly blue, green, black and pink, so you know the color on this figure really pops! I also really like the metallic sheen to some of his blues. That’s nice!

Trap Jaw’s head sculpt is just awesome. His green snarling face is hideous, right down to his beady yellow eyes. There’s definitely a lot of the Filmation character in there. He retains the same ring on the top of his head from the vintage figure, which you can pass a string through so he can zipline into action using his head! Another really cool addition is the articulation in his lower mechanical jaw, which lowers to reveal a really nasty mess where his real jaw used to be. My only nitpick about his head is that his jaw piece is a little lighter than his helmet. I would have liked if they matched the colors a little better. Hey, I have to think of at least one critical thing to say.

Besides his… um trapjaw, Trap Jaw’s other big gimmick is his cyborg right arm and interchangeable parts. He can switch out a laser gun, a robotic claw, or a hook, so he always has the right tool for the right job. Each piece just pops off and you can hang his extra parts from hooks on his belt. The laser gun is a little longer than I remember the vintage one being, but I think I actually like it better. The robotic claw is articulated, and the hook is… well, just a hook, but plenty cool nonetheless.

As if all this wasn’t cool enough, Trap Jaw also comes with the extra head and arm to turn him back into his original pre-ghoulish form, Kronos. The replacement right arm is a match for his left arm and when you pop the cyborg arm off, you can remove the armor piece that covers the right side of his torso. Initially, I had very little interest in these parts, but I have to admit they go really well with the figure and they’ve grown on me a lot and the figure looks really cool as Kronos. And even though I know the armor piece is supposed to be part of his cyborg arm, I prefer to leave it on him even when he’s Kronos. I just think it looks better.

And there ya have it. Trap Jaw is another slam dunk for Matty’s MOTUC lineup. As usual, The Four Horseman offered up a fantastic update to a great character. This figure is loads of fun to play around with and looks great standing alongside Skeletor’s cadre of bastards. He’s definitely my favorite release in this line to date, and I have a feeling he will be for quite a while to come.

Yeah, I’m still missing Mer-Man. C’mon, Matty, reissue him already. Why is Stratos getting reissued before Mer-Man for crying out loud?

Now, keep in mind, this is Zodac and not to be confused with Zodak, who is sort of the same character, but inspired by the 20xx series look. Is that right? Folks, I’ve been out of the Masters seen for a long time, so don’t rely on me for all the facts. As I understand it Matty wanted to release them both so they sort of made them two different characters. Its a whole complicated thing. I get the idea that Mattel could never quite figure out who the hell Zodac was supposed to be, so throughout the history of even the vintage line, he could show up on either side: One day he could be trying to shoot He-Man in the face, and the next day he’d be fighting along side him. And then came the Filmation series, where he was some kind of holier-than-thou space cop who flew around in a chair. Jeez.

I think a lot of the dislike for Zodac as a figure is because he’s not terribly exciting when placed in the context of the other figures. In a world where you’ve got people with skulls for faces, changeable eyes, etc, Zodac is a relatively normal dude. But in terms of quality and overall faithfulness to the original character, I think Zodac is a pretty fine figure. As one should expect by now, Zodac is fashioned from a hodge podge of reused pieces that include Skeletor’s arms and legs, Beastman’s torso, and He-Man’s pelvis. He does have a brand new set of chest armor and a brand new head sculpt , as well as some paint variations to make him stand out. His boots and shin armor are painted gray, his arm bracers are unpainted, and his belt is painted white.

Zodac’s two new pieces are pretty well done. His chest piece is soft plastic with an angular front plate and a smaller back plate that looks like a backpack. The straps go around his waist and over his shoulders. The waist straps are molded and painted to look like a cartridge belt. Overall, this armor is made to look a bit more futuristic than most of the Eternian garb on the other figures. Zodac’s mask covers most of his head and face, really just leaving his mouth exposed. Both the head and the armor are excellent recreations of the vintage figure.

Zodac comes with only one accessory: a laser pistol. Um… its red. And that’s it. I think maybe here is partly where the figure tends to fall short in the eyes of collectors. Matty certainly hasn’t always been fair when dolling out the accessories. Just look at the difference between Zodac and Teela. Teela gets an extra head, a sword and shield, a staff, Zoar the Falcon and Zodac gets his little ray gun. I realize that Zodac doesn’t have the gravitas of Teela, but maybe that’s all the more reason to load him up with some cool shit.

So, yeah, Zodac is not the most exciting figure out there. He definiely could have used another accessory or maybe at least a holster for his gun. Still, I’d argue he’s not a bad figure at all and he rounds out the familiar faces of the MOTU characters on my shelf rather nicely. I’m not sure whether I’ll splurge for Zodak with a “K.” While I’ll concede it looks like the superior of the two, Zodac is more accurate to the vintage line, and that’s really what I’m going for with my collection.