It’s been almost five years since Mezco embarked on bringing out the beloved Classic Thundercats in a giant 14-inch Mega-Scale figure format. There were times along the way that it felt like the team might never see completion. And while it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see a Wily Kit and Wily Kat, we finally have a core team of cats with the release of Tygra! I’ve made no bones about being a huge fan of this line. At a time when Ban Dai couldn’t decide what to do with the Classics line, these releases came as a bright ray of shining hope in the unfortunately short-lived Thundercats revival of 2011. Needless to say, I’m pretty damn excited to finally have this figure in hand.

The boxes have been fairly consistent throughout the five year stretch. Tygra comes in a very colorful window box with the glorious Thundercats logo emblazoned across the front and side panel. You get some damned beautiful character art of Tygra on the front and the rest of the cats on the other side panel. There are some minor changes for each of the different cats’ boxes, and Mumm-Ra came in a black box because he’s so damn evil, but these are collector friendly and look mighty nice when all lined up on the shelf. Provided you have a shelf big enough to contain them all. With a little patience required to untwist some twist-ties, Tygra comes out of the box and all set to go!

And looking damned good! The sculpt walks the fine line between being sparse enough to maintain the animated style, while offering enough detail to make for an interesting and appealing figure. The bulk of the sculpting here is in Tygra’s impressive muscle tone. His cat feet are fully realized, and all of the details that make up the costume are part of the sculpt as well as the deco, including the Thundercat emblem on his chest. While these are billed as “action figures” it should be noted that articulation is fairly limited and Tygra is sculpted in an action-ready stance. The bulk of useful articulation is in the head and arms. There are ball joints in the neck and shoulders, a swivel in the middle of the left arm and another at the right wrist. The legs swivel at the hips and again at the tops of the boots, but these are mainly there to help shift the balance and achieve a good footing. In the end, I found I could get some good variations out of him, but like the other figures in the line, it’s best to temper expectations on posing.

The paint here is solid, but does show some rough patches under close scrutiny. The tiger stripes look particularly nice and the muted shades of blue and green that make up his costume all look right on point and are fairly clean. Some of the lines could be crisper and the paint more even, especially around the border of his left sleeve. Nonetheless, Tygra is still an attractive looking figure and I’m only going to expect so much from the quality of paintwork on a piece this big with a price this reasonable.

The portrait is where this figure really shines. I think the sculpt does a wonderful job capturing the character’s likeness and I really like how the rather fierce expression matches the action-orientated stance of the figure. These are definitely cats that are prepared to do battle with some mutants. The teeth and the eyes are just amazing.

Tygra comes with his bolo whip, which fits comfortably in his right hand and has a wire running throughout so that it can be put in a variety of positions depending on the look you’re going for. It’s here where I really have my only gripes with the figure. I feel like a collapsed bolo would have been a nice extra. I also wish the whip itself was a little longer so that I could get it snake around him a few times while holding his hand over his head. Of course, then I remember the price point here, and I feel bad about asking for more.

I brought up price a few times throughout this Feature and that’s because Mezco has been able to keep this line at a $35 price point (give or take a little, depending on where you buy it). And while I may nitpick an imprecise paint line here and point out some missed opportunities with the accessories, the truth is that I think what we’re getting here is an amazing deal. While jumbo figures have become something of a trend nowadays, the sculpt, paint, and overall quality on these cats is leaps and bounds better than what I’m seeing in the slightly larger 18-inch Star Wars figures on the shelves. Indeed, these feel a bit more like collectibles and not like mass produced toys. In the end, I’m truly grateful that Mezco saw this line through to at least give us the four major cats and Mumm-Ra. These make for an absolutely epic display. I’m still considering buying the second release of Lion-O just so that I can get Snarf. And hey, if they do decide to get us a Thunderkitten two-pack, I’d be totally down with that.

Ah, God bless you folks at Mezco. When the attempted Thundercats revolution crumbled around Ban Dai and broke my heart, you guys were the only ones left carrying the torch. I have no desire to live in a world without Thundercats in one form or another, so you’re the only ones nursing the flickering candlewick of faith that I hold for this miserable lump of rock we call Earth anymore. Oh yeah, also… you guys are a bunch of jerks. Snarf packed into the SDCC Exclusive version of Cheetara? Really guys? Really?? See, here’s the first problem with that… That version of Cheetara has the crazy light up eyes that I don’t want. So even if I choose to hunt that one down, and let’s be honest, getting the SDCC Thundercats stuff after the conventions hasn’t exactly been difficult, I don’t want that Cheetara. Surely you can see the pickle you placed me in. There’s a second problem with Snarf not being in with this regular retail release, but I’ll get back to that at the end. Let’s get on with the feature…

I’m super thrilled to be holding this box, because I love Thundercats, and I love this line of statue-figure-whatevers. Every release has had me a little worried that it would go no further, but now we have Cheetara and surely Tygra can’t be far behind, right Mezco? RIGHT??? Anyway, Cheetara comes in the same style box as the past releases and it is drop dead gorgeous. The window shows off the figure beautifully and the colorful artwork on the side panel is so gloriously exquisite that it makes me want to weep. I mean just look at that shot of Cheetara. Hey, waitaminute. That’s the Cheetara I grew up with. I mean, sure I had a crush on the Cheetara from the cartoon because she was hawt, but look at that super sexed up cat-vixen up there on that box art. Heeeeelo kitty! Ok, where was I? Cheetara comes on a plastic tray with some twisty ties to contend with. Happily, her staff is on the tray too, so you don’t have to tear it off the back of the illustrated cardboard piece like I had to do with Panthro’s nunchuks. Nope, this box is totally collector friendly and even though I have my Thundercats all on display right now, I’m saving every one of the boxes just because I can’t bring myself to destroy such beauty.

And speaking of beauty… out of the box Cheetara is every bit the simple animated beauty that I had a crush on as a kid. Yup, I said it up there and I just said it again. It was a simpler time when words like bestiality meant nothing to me and there was nothing wrong with getting naughty feelings about a sexy cat lady. Did she have skin or fur? No wait, don’t answer that. I don’t even want to think about it. Suffice it to say the sculpt here is indeed simple in keeping with the animated look, and yet it captures the character perfectly. You get her orange leotard that shows off her shapely cat bosoms and bitchin’ cat hinder and the iconic Thundercats emblem is both sculpted and painted onto her outfit.

Of course, the real selling point of this piece for me is the portrait. Mezco really nailed the likeness. The face sculpt is spot-on and the hair looks perfect. The paint used for her face markings, eyes and lips is all pretty crisp and she even has those sexy spots on her hair, neck and shoulders. Meeeeow! I can practically hear the sultry and husky voice of Lynne Lipton coming right out of her.

Of course, if you’ve been following my little batch of Mega-Scale Thundercat reviews than you already know that none of these figures have been super-posable, but you do get enough points of articulation that I’m willing to call them figures rather than just statues. Cheetara sports ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. She’s also got swivels in her forearms, wrists, and at the tops of her boots. Yes, she’s missing the torso articulation that Lion-O and Panthro had, but there was really no place to put it on her without defacing the sculpt, so I think it was a good decision. Besides neither of the other figures had her hip articulation, so what we’re getting isn’t really less just different.

Cheetara comes with her Bo Staff, which is fair enough, but that’s it and let’s be honest here, it’s just an orange stick and it feels a little like she got short-changed. Lion-O came with two versions of his beautifully sculpted sword and a swappable claw shield, Panthro came with his nunchuks with the real chain and a swappable left hand, and Mumm-Ra came with all that cool softgoods. It feels like Cheetara could have used an extra hand to let her hold the staff horizontally above her head. Or maybe a collapsed version of the staff. What I’m getting at here is that it seems like tossing Snarf into the box would have made her on par with the other releases, rather than something special and so I take issue with the fact that they went and packed Snarf in as an Exclusive bonus.

I don’t want to sound like a complainer. I’m so very grateful that Mezco is carrying the torch for the Thundercats and giving us this great line. And at $35 a pop, these are priced very reasonably, so if bitching about what’s not in Cheetara’s box (giggity) makes me sound otherwise, please know it isn’t the case.  Snarf notwithstanding, I absolutely adore this figure. Sure, the wow factor of the size of these figures has waned a bit as they’re displayed in a case next to my quarter-scale Avengers, but they’re still great figures and I’m thrilled to see the team come together a little more with each new release. I’m still counting on getting a Tygra next year, and if that finishes off the line (which I suspect it will) I’ll still be happy. On the other hand, if Mezco wants to keep going, I promise to buy every one of these that they see fit to release. I’m serious, Mezco. Release a f’cking Berbil and you’ll see. I’ll buy it.

Holy, hell… looky here. Something new to look at. I came home from work today to find a massive box sitting on my stoop and knew right away that it had to be Mezco’s new Mega-Scale Thundercats figure. Its just a bit ironic that when Mezco introduced its Mega-Scale Lion-O last year, I saw it as an oddity. Afterall, Ban Dai had just secured the license to do Thundercats toys and I naturally assumed that most of my Thundercats goodness would be coming from them. Now, here we are, Ban Dai has all but abandoned the line. Our Classics Thundercats are incomplete, and I’m now counting on Mezco to deliver a full set of classic kitties in this Mega-Scale line. If you haven’t checked out my feature on Mezco’s Lion-O figure, feel free to do so. I was blown away by that release, and so I expected great things from Mumm-Ra. Let’s see how he turned out.

The package is HUGE and gorgeous. It doesn’t stand out quite as much as the bright red box used for Lion-O, but it is appropriately black to reflect the evil that is Mumm-Ra. You’ll also note the addition of the word “Classic” so as not to confuse these with the 2011 versions based on the new series. One side panel has the Thundercats logo running down it and the other shows off some of the Mutants. Oh, Mezco, I can only hope you keep doing these and deliver on the Mutants as well! The back panel shows off a photo of the figure and the front has a window to show the figure itself. Mint in Sealed Box collectors may be disappointed to learn that you really cannot get the full effect of this figure unless you take him out, because some assembly is required. To be specific, he’s packaged with his feet off, because when they’re on he’d be too big to fit in the same size box as Lion-O. His cape is stored behind the tray and must be attached to the figure, and he comes with three rolls of bandages taped to the back of the tray. More on that later. Suffice it to say, the in-package presentation here is fantastic and he can be returned to the box for safe keeping, which is a good thing, because as much as I love him, I really don’t have the room right now to keep him on display.

So, as mentioned, once this big guy is out of the box you need to do a little set up work. Mumm-Ra’s feet are attached just like Lion-O’s removable hand/claw shield is, and you can easily pop them off to get him back in the box. The placement of the bandages are completely up to you. I wrapped one around each arm, and than use the center around his chest and waist. They’re very stringy to make them look ragged, but you can always snip them to give them a cleaner look.

The sculpt here is pretty fantastic. He has the same great musculature as the Lion-O figure, gnarled claws and feet, and lots of detail on his fur spats. The head, however, produces the real awe factor. Mumm-Ra used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid, and this figure’s head sculpt captures exactly why. He’s gloriously hideous, with piercing red eyes, and a toothy mouth open in a combination scream and creepy smile. Even now as I write this I keep glancing off to the side at him and wish he would quit staring at me. Look at those damn eyes. They’re painted with glossy red and they literally look like they’re full of blood. The helmet is perfect, right down to the curved snakes and the flared nasal guard. I also absolutely love that Mezco went with actual cloth streamers for the back of the helmet. You can drape some of them over the front of his shoulders for a really great look. His skirt is sculpted as part of the figure. The metallic gold paint is really nice too.