Tag Archives: motuc

Mar 2 2013

Masters of the Universe Classics: Ram Man by Mattel

It’s no secret that my interest in MOTUC petered out last year. I picked up a handful of figures (mostly second chances at older releases) and the Wind Raider, but there wasn’t anything new on the radar that I was interested in until Ram Man. I was also pretty sure I was going to get shut out on Ram Man. So much so, that I almost considered getting a sub, just because he was the last core character I really needed in my collection and I knew he was going to sell out fast. And so, Feb 15th 2013 was like old times, as I found myself sitting on Matty Collector and hitting refresh over and over again at 11:59a. Well, it paid off, because I was able to order Ram Man without a single hitch. No screens of death, no endless spooling, Matty didn’t show up at my house and kick me in the nuts. Nope, everything went smoothly. And a good thing it did, because he sold out in about 6 minutes. The crazy thing is I’m pretty sure that’s by no means a record and he actually lasted a lot longer than I thought he would.

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I half expected Rammy to come in a box similar to the giants and the beasts, but nope, he comes on a bigger version of the regular MOTUC card. I guess that’s a good thing because since he is just another one of the guys, MOC collectors will have some uniformity in their collection. The packaging looks as good as it always does, and we’ve seen it here plenty of times, so I won’t bother with it a lot. And quite frankly, I’m just really anxious to bust him out.

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As one might expect, Ram Man is one mighty hefty slab of plastic. He is, after all, a human battering ram. He is an oversized figure, but he isn’t much taller than He-Man, so he’s more like an oversized figure crushed down to regular height. This boy’s got girth, and it really suits the character well. I’m probably not alone in that I was super curious how Matty was going to give him the “realistic” Classics makeover, but what we got here is quite well-executed. He retains all the iconic characteristics of the character, and yet he looks refreshed and a perfect fit for the Classics line. It’s also worth noting that in a line with as much parts borrowing as MOTUC, Ram Man’s unique tooling really makes him stand out.

For starters, you get two heads and I can’t get away from the fact that they both look exactly like the late, great character actor, Brad Sullivan.

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Either someone at The Four Horseman really liked this guy, or this is one hell of a coincidence. Either way, I approve. The head that comes packaged on the figure is his full helmeted head, whereas the other one just has a metal skull cap, which i can’t help but imagine is permanently bolted to his skull. Both sculpts are fantastic, but the un-helmeted head really stands out because you can see more of it and just how much personality and crazy detail T4H put into it. Alas, I can’t see myself ever displaying him without the full helmet. The cheek guards are soft plastic, so they don’t get in the way of his neck articulation, and you can bend them out and see a lot of Rammy’s face behind it.

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His armor and outfit are spot on and loaded with detail. He has a brown tunic belted with a huge belt and a sculpted skull belt buckle. The middle of the tunic has sculpted and painted ties and the shoulder armor is layered on top of it, which gives the figure’s sculpt a lot of depth and credibility. The massive chains are cool, as are the huge bolts and the tiny little rivets that run along the edges. I even like the way they reproduced his “spring” legs without making him look too goofy. I mean, c’mon, we can’t have a guy who rams thing with his head for a living looking goofy, can we? My figure has a few strokes of silver paint on the tunic, but it’s nothing I can’t live with.

Amazingly, Mattel managed to retain all the usual points of articulation for this guy. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. His legs have hinged knees and ankles, although not much of a rocker. He also has the ab-crunch hinge.  Granted, the hip articulation is inhibited by his tunic, but it’s still there.

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For a guy who uses his head as a weapon, Ram Man doesn’t come with a lot of accessories. He does, however, have a pretty cool axe, which he can hold in his right hand. It’s a simple enough piece, but he looks great holding it. He can also store it on a clip on his back.

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Honestly, it feels good to be excited about a MOTUC figure again. There were plenty of decent, but not essential, figures last year that I would have happily purchased if the cost on these with shipping wasn’t so high, but Matty has gradually priced them out of my market. I’m perfectly willing to pay a lot of money for good figures, but not when they’re characters I don’t care about. Ram Man was the last piece of my Masters Classics collection that I considered absolutely essential and now that he’s in hand he doesn’t disappoint. Even at $42 shipped, I’m perfectly satisfied with him and so very glad to have him filling that last void on my shelf. Seeing him lined up with all my heroes makes me so happy I stuck with this line, even if though I was selective about the figures I bought.

And yes, I did sub to the Filmation series. So Rammy will definitely not be the last MOTUC figure you see featured here on FigureFan Zero.

Dec 20 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Vikor by Mattel

Ok, we’re up to the last of the MOTUC figures that I picked up from Matty’s Cyber Monday Sale. It’s Vikor, and I have absolutely no interest in this figure as an MOTUC character. But that’s fair enough, since he’s a figure that’s based on concept art with a subsequent bio retconned into the universe. Yes, like a lot of collectors, I bought him strictly because I dig Conan, and Vikor is now an unofficial Conan stand-in on my action figure shelves.

There’s the awesome MOTUC packaging. When will we see it again around these parts? Who can tell. Possibly not for a long time. The insert on mine has the explosion that says “The Original” which, in “Matty Speak,” means the exact opposite. This figure is not the original, it’s the re-issue. Anyway, I’m not even bothering with the bio on the back of the card, because Vikor here is just my generic Conan-like barbarian figure, and I’m not concerned with his tie-in to the Masters universe. There’s was something else I wanted to say here… now what was it? Oh yeah… VIKOR IS AN ABSOLUTE BITCH TO GET OFF THE TRAY!!! I don’t know what kind of tortured method the factories used to get this guy onto his tray, but his cape was passed through a narrow little slot and his sword also passes in front of and behind the plastic. Ultimately I had to get a pair of scissors and start hacking away until I could get the figure free. The fact that he’s wearing chains is somehow appropriate.


Out of the package, and it’s easy to see why Vikor is a perfect Conan stand in. Not the “Ahh’nold” Conan, or even the “Guy-From-Game-Of-Thrones-Who’s-Name-I-Can’t-Be-Bothered-To-Look-Up” Conan. Nope, he’s more like the awesome Frank Frazetta Conan. He’s a remarkably simple figure using the basic MOTUC male buck with just the right amount of original bits here and there to make him work so well as a barbarian warlord. He’s so chock full of barbarian goodness that he makes He-Man look like a girly-haired pussy by comparison.

First off, check out that head sculpt. The face is chiseled and harsh with a broad nose, prominent brow and narrow eyes that seem intent on figuring out the most spectacular way to eviscerate you. There’s a wonderful fierce nobility that comes across just like it does in Frazetta’s artwork. The horned helmet and long hair are both sculpted together and the helmet is ever so slightly crooked, making it look so much more convincing than if it were just sculpted as part of the head. It’s also pitted and dinged, making it one of the best sculpted pieces of armor this line has produced. The head is perfectly framed by the necklace of bones that holds on his cape, but more on that cape later.

As already mentioned, the body is a basic He-Man torso and legs. The chest is completely bare and the typical MOTU-style furry diaper is replaced with a ragged brown loincloth, front and back, held on with a sculpted coin-style belt on each side. The back of the sash has a loop to store his sword. Apart from this new modesty garment, Vikor is wearing straps on his biceps and manacles on his wrists, each with the remnants of real chains hanging down from them.

The molded fur cape fans out behind him and while I would have preferred it to be painted matte, rather than the less appropriate glossy brown, it still features a gorgeous amount of texture work and the bone necklace that attaches it around Vikor’s neck has a cool, rotting yellow finish. The downside of the cape is that it’s molded in very rigid plastic and it does tend to get in the way. Fortunately, you can pop off Vikor’s head and remove it, for when he plans on going apeshit with his axe and needs a little more elbow room to maneuver.


Speaking of going apeshit with weapons, Vikor comes with a sword, a shield, and a battle axe. The sword and axe are paired with the same style grips. They are very nice pieces, but I would have preferred something more primitive looking, like sculpted leather grips, over these green metallic grips. The weapons look a little too modern for the figure, and while I realize that mixing medieval with future tech is one of the charms of the MOTU universe, they’re a tad out of place for my Conan figure here. The shield also has bit of a modern vibe to it, although it matches the other weapons really well and can clip onto either of Vikor’s arms.


Vikor is a spectacular figure, and one I’d wholeheartedly recommend even to folks who aren’t collecting the MOTUC line. In fact, if you want a good representation of what makes this line of figures so great, Vikor makes a fantastic stand-alone piece to display on your shelf. I’m really glad I had another opportunity to pick him up, and the discounted price and shipping makes it all the better. Of course, the other reason I got him was to display with my Battleground Teela. The two figures look like they were made for each other, as both really transcend the MOTUC line and display beautifully together.

I’m all out of stuff that I scored from Matty’s Cyber Monday Sale, so tomorrow I’m going to shoehorn in another Mattel item that I picked up on sale from a different e-tailer that same week.

Dec 18 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Grizzlor by Mattel

Things got a little-long winded yesterday, so today I’m checking out one of the figures that I’m not likely to gas on about nearly so much. He’s Grizzlor, and I’ll be honest, the only reason I bought him was because I was already placing an order, he was cheap, and I wanted at least one more figure for my Horde shelf that wasn’t Leech. I can’t stand Leech. Seriously, don’t get me started on Leech. My fondness for Grizzlor doesn’t stretch much further back than his appearances on Robot Chicken, but hey, another Horde guy for $15… how could I go wrong?

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.

Dec 17 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Draego-Man by Mattel

2012 was the year I weaned myself off Masters of the Universe Classics. I picked up the Wind Raider and Sorceress, and I kept it in mind that if Ram-Man were obtainable for a reasonable price, I would buy him too. But for all intents and purposes, I have retired my collecting of this line. It was a great line, but I was always only in it for the main characters. Along the way, I picked up a few back-benchers just because they turned out exceptionally well, but I got out of it what I wanted to, it was time to stop, and I did really well in making good on that commitment to myself. Then Matty’s Cyber Monday Sale happened and I got a second chance at some figures that piqued my interest. I still resisted. Then Matty started slashing prices on the figures and shipping and I decided, “Oh what the hell, a couple more for old time sake!”

Draego-Man is one of those “fake” MOTU figures, created specifically for the 30th Anniversary. Yes, Mattel’s way of celebrating the 30thAnniversary of He-Man was to have a bunch of people create figures of characters that never existed before as a misguided nod back to the 1986 contest that let kids design their own character. The winner of the ’86 contest was supposed to get their character made into a figure, but it never happened until now when Matty finally made Fearless Photog as part of this celebration. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that finally creating that figure as part of the 30th Anniversary was a pretty cool move on Mattel’s part, as this release was tied to a piece of the franchise’s history. However, when Mattel moved beyond that gesture, that’s where I think they missed the entire point.

You see, obviously, Mattel can’t tell the difference between kids entering a contest and having industry insiders sculpt bullshit figures and retcon them into the MOTU legacy. Not only is this one of the worst ideas on how to celebrate a milestone anniversary of the franchise, but it was the ultimate display of vanity and hubris, and a blatant excuse to let the brand manager get his own figure produced. Looking beyond the questionable motives, these “30th Anniversary Figures” ranged from the laughably bad (Mighty Spector and Sir Laserlot) to today’s excellent Draego-Man. But then, Draego-Man was designed by The Four Horseman, so there’s no surprise he turned out great.  Ok, enough editorializing, let’s look at the figure.


There’s the MOTUC packaging that we all know and love. The last time I featured it was way back in March when I looked at the Sorceress. It hasn’t changed much, although this one has a little explosion on the bottom insert pointing out that this figure was “Created by The Four Horsemen.” Neat! Draego-Man is a beast of a figure (quite literally!) and they were just barely able to stuff him into a standard sized bubble. Seriously, look inside that package and you’ll see that even with his tail and wings detached and his head turned to the side, there’s barely any room for anything else inside that cramped bubble compartment. The back of the card features some shots of other figures. Holy crap, I actually have all of them except Webstor! You also get a biography retconning Draego-Man into the MOTU continuity and pointing out that he is most decidedly evil, although he seems to waffle on who’s side he’s really on. Let’s bust this guy open and check him out!


Out of the package, the first thing you need to do is attach Draego-Man’s wings and his tail and then he’s all set to go. Damn, that is a beauty of a figure. He’s teaming with brand new sculpting, which meshes perfectly with the recycled MOTUC parts. The traditional MOTU loincloth is pretty obvious, the tail should look familiar, and I think the head sculpt has a hint of Filmation look to it, but otherwise, Draego-Man is definitely all his own figure, and he’s a majestic one at that.

Getting back to the head sculpt, it’s easily one of my favorite things about the figure. He’s got an elegant triangular noggin that starts at the back of his ebony horns and runs down to a point at the tip of his snout. Every little scale is sculpted on, along with little dragon bumps on his nose and chin. His staggered teeth protrude haphazardly from his closed mouth, reminiscent of an alligator. He has a really cool duality to his expression. Point his nose down and the shadows fall over his eyes and he looks like a vicious bastard. Point his nose up and he has more of a noble visage. Either way, T4H did a marvelous job with Draego’s head.

The body of the figure is equally impressive, with heavy segmented rings on his arms and legs and some really cool sculpted armor. The crest on his chestplate is a dragon’s face set atop the crossbones that are reminiscent of Skeletor’s insignia. His leg armor even has little sculpted fasteners for where they would strap around his legs. But the wings are my favorite thing about Draego’s body. They’re quintessential dragon wings, sculpted with a rough, leathery pattern and culminating in two little ebony claws at the tops. The wings are partially unfurled so you can get a pretty good idea of how menacing they are, without him taking up too much space on your display shelf.

 

The coloring on Draego-Man is brilliant. The deep red of his skin is coupled with a bright orange used for his undercarriage and the insides of his wings. On the body itself, you can really only see the orange  under his neck and under his tail, but I presume it’s meant to run down his chest in typical dragon fashion. The red contrasts nicely with the dark blue and purple of his armor and I’m particularly fond of the metallic paint used for the collar of his breastplate and his bracers. Beautiful!

Possibly Draego-Man’s only drawback is that he’s light in the accessories department. Matty had to omit his whip in order to keep the cost down and so all he comes with is his flaming sword. Now the sword is certainly a beautiful piece all on its own. I’m not usually a big fan of plastic sculpted flame motifs, as they don’t often look terribly convincing, but this one pulls it off really well. As for only coming with one accessory, with the additional wings and the amount of unique sculpting here, I can certainly forgive him that.

If you’re familiar with the MOTUC line, than you should know what to expect from Draego’s articulation. He has a ball jointed neck; his arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. His legs are ball jointed and swivel at the hips, feature hinges in the knees and ankles, and he has rocker joints in the ankles. The only thing really new here are his wings, which rotate and feature hinges.

Draego-Man was the only figure of the bullshit 30th Anniversary releases that tempted me when he was first offered. He’s not only beautifully designed and sculpted, but he’s so good he practically transcends the line and works as his own stand-alone figure. It’s crazy to think that while Matty was piecing out original tooling to see what real MOTU characters they can afford to make, T4H were allowed to go fucking nuts on this guy. Nevertheless, I’m glad they did, because in terms of sculpt, design, and coloring, I honestly think Draego-Man is easily the most impressive figure to come out of the line. That’s saying an awful lot when you consider that a) I have no nostalgic connection to this character, and b) most figures in the line are excellent, so he has some stiff competition. Nonetheless, I adore everything about this guy and I’m so very happy I was able to double back and pick him up. The fact that he was on sale was just icing on the cake.

Mar 5 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Sorceress by Mattel

This is it! I have here before me what I consider to be the last “must have” figure in my MOTUC collection. Check, please! I’m punching out. Now, I’m not saying this will necessarily be the last MOTUC figure you see featured here. It won’t be. There are plenty of deals out there on the second hand market, and there are figures that I would be willing to pick up by means other than Matty Collector if the price is right. It is also very possible when Ram Man is finally released I’ll go for him if he’s done right. But all that having been said, if I never do buy another MOTUC figure, I’ll happily stand with what I currently have.

There’s that great MOTUC packaging. It hasn’t changed much, but then it doesn’t have to because it still looks great. The reverse of the card actually has a 30th Anniversary logo on it, so there’s something a little different. Apart from that, you pretty much know what to expect here, bio and all.
I really like how Sorceress’ head sculpt turned out. She’s pretty and the paintwork on her face is sharp and clean. Her iconic headdress is executed really well too. The fringe is soft plastic so as not to inhibit the head movement too badly. This is definitely the Filmation style head that I was looking for on this figure.

As for the body… there’s not a lot to say here. As with previous female figures, Sorceress’ outfit is separately sculpted and permanently attached to the figure body. The skirt portion has some sculpted feathers as does the fringe around the tops of her boots. The outfit is painted in the familiar white and blue deco.
Ok, let’s talk wings. So, Mattel went with a design that allows her wings to fold with her arms. Put her arms up and the wings fan out to show off her… um, plumage. It looks rather good from the front, apart from the gap between the backpiece and the rest of the wings, but all in all its ok. Turn her around, though, and its a different story. You get these two giant hinges on shoulders, which are downright f’ugly. Honestly, I’m not sure there’s a better design they could have done so I’m not going to complain too much here.

The articulation is about what we’ve come to expect from the females of the MOTUC line. Sorceress has ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms have hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs feature hinges in the knees and ankles and swivels just above the boots. She swivels at the waist.
Sorceress comes with her staff, which is cast in a really purdy pearl finish. She also comes with her falcon form. Yep, we’ve seen this bird before. Its a cool little sculpt with hinged wings. This is my favorite paint job of them all, with a rainbow finish on the wings to match those of the Sorceress. You also get the amazing little battle harness, which outfits the bird with bombs, a big gun, and rear spoilers. I can’t decide whether its ridiculous or awesome, but if you don’t like it you can just pop it off. You also get the perch, which you can clip her feet onto.
And there you have it. Its been a rough ride at times, it’s nice to go out with a bang, and I think Mattel did a fine job with Sorceress. But then the quality of the MOTUC figures have never been anything less than excellent. While I know there have been more than a few cases of QC issues, I can honestly say I’ve never experienced them with any of the MOTUC figures I purchased. I’d like to say I’m bailing on the line out of principal due to some of the shady things the Matty-Digital River union has pulled over the years, but the truth is I’ve really got everything was looking to get, and the characters being offered this year just don’t impress me.

Ah, but make no mistake, I’m sure you’ll see some MOTUC figures here on FigureFan again.
Jan 8 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Wind Raider by Mattel

None of the figures offered up by Matty Collector last month really grabbed my interest, but I couldn’t resist the first vehicle released in the MOTUC line. The Wind Raider was pretty much a no-brainer as a choice for the first vehicle since its relatively small and apart from the Sky Sled is probably the most iconic vehicle from the Filmation cartoon and the comics. I was almost positive this thing was going to sell out in under ten minutes, but it actually hung around for at least a couple of days, making grabbing one a pretty painless affair. Of course, as usual shipping was less than painless. $15 to ship and it takes over two fucking weeks to get here. That’s why I’m checking this thing out so late. It actually didn’t arrive until a few days after New Year’s. I realize this is a tough time of year for shipping, but it seemed like everything I ordered from everyone else got to me pretty fast and its not like Matty doesn’t have a track record for slow, expensive shipping.  Matty, you have some of the worst customer service on the planet.

The toys on the other hand….
Just like the figures, the Wind Raider comes in a white mailer box. Sliding it off reveals the actual toy’s box underneith, which is all kinds of cool since it really recreates that vintage boxed toy feel of the 80’s, complete with exciting illustrations and not a single photo of the actual toy on the box anywhere. The last time I can remember getting this nostalgic feeling from a boxed toy was when I got Bandai’s new Thundertank earlier this year. The box art is indeed nice, and I especially like the antiquated looking schematics sketched onto the back. Its also kind of exciting to see those spinning hover vehicles pictured on the front illustration. I know Mattel said there would be no vehicles in 2012, but if another one is coming, that one looks like it would be pretty easy and cost effective to produce. Plus, it seems only fair that the next vehicle go to the bad guys. Anyway, the box is a little bigger than the boxes for Hasbro’s $20-30 Star Wars vehicles. The vehicle requires a little bit of assembly. You need to pop on the rear tailfin and the wings.
Before I get to the toy itself, I just want to say: Holy crap, it comes with that display stand!!! I genuinely had no idea this was coming in the box. I saw it sitting on the stand at the various conventions and expos, but I always assumed it was just something Mattel was using to show it off. Getting the stand with the toy was an amazing surprise and just impressed the hell out of me. It’s a nice big disc with the Masters of the Universe logo etched into it, front and back. It has a curved stand with a ratcheting sphere that pegs into the bottom of the Wind Raider. The result is you can position the ship at all sorts of angles. It’s an amazing bonus for what is already an amazing toy.
My first thought as I was taking the Wind Raider out of the box and snapping it together was about how big this thing is. It’s a nice, hefty toy with a huge wingspan and when  you put a figure in it, it looks wonderfully scaled to the figure, whereas the vintage one always seemed too small. I was expecting a lot of stickers, particularly in the cockpit, but that wasn’t the case. The striping and artwork on the body and rear wing are actually expertly applied decals, but apart from them every little detail, and there’s a ton of detail, is sculpted and beautifully painted. The detail work on this thing is just breathtaking. The panel lines, the little wires and cables, the cushions on the pilot seat, and most incredibly all the controls on the console… it’s all sculpted and painted and absolutely gorgeous. It may be a toy, but it really does look more like a highend display piece when perched on its stand. I’ll note here that the decals on the sides scare me a bit, as they will be prone to chip over time, so if I ever put this baby into storage, I’ll probably have to wrap really well in something.
The Wind Raider actually does have a few play features. there are two opening compartments that reveal sculpted and painted missiles inside, the wings pivot and lock into various position, like flaps on an airplane, and the front harpoon fires, albeit not very far. You can lift the large dragon disc on the Wind Raider’s hood and crank it to retract the harpoon and cable.
The Wind Raider is priced at $45, which feels like a pretty great value for what you get. Unfortunately, with the only way to get this thing being online and through Matty, you really need to factor the shipping into the retail price, and that brings it up to $60. Nonetheless, even at sixty bucks, I think this thing was well worth it, maybe not a great value, but definitely worth it. It really is just an amazing looking piece and extremely well constructed. I haven’t decided where I’m going to display it yet, so right now, I just have it sitting on my coffee table with He-Man at the controls. I’ll probably leave it there a while because every time I walk past it, it puts a huge smile on my face.
Dec 18 2011

Masters of the Universe Classics: Icarius by Mattel

[See! Told ya, I’d be back. I’m not going to bother with a big preamble about how long its been. I’ve dropped in with a couple of posts to do that. Instead let me jump right in and see if I remembered how to do this nonsense…]

Icarius was one of the figures from October’s Matty Sale Day, so yeah, he’s been out for a while. I probably shouldn’t complain about people doing things in a timely manner, since it took me almost two months to do this review, but I’m going to continue to gripe about Matty’s shipping. October’s sale happened on the 17th, my Icarus figure didn’t ship out until three days later, and didn’t finally arrive on my doorstep until a full ten days after that. I wouldn’t mind so much if they didn’t charge almost ten dollars. It just seems like I’m paying a lot for the slowest possible shipping. But, with that little rant out of the way let me preface our look at this figure by pointing out that I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of The New Adventures of He-Man, which is where Icarius (aka Flipshot) is from. The MOTUC line has been pretty good at getting me to pony up for figures when I don’t have a lot of love or familiarity for the character. Optikk (also from New Adventures) and Chief Carnivous (from the MYP series) were others. Icarius just looked like a really cool toy that I needed to check out for myself.

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There’s the MOTUC packaging. We’ve seen it dozens of times, although it’s been a while since I last saw it, as I didn’t buy any MOTUC figures last month. I did open Icarius back when I first got him, and it was a bit of a pill to try to find out what I did with the in-package photo, but low and behold I managed to track it down on one of my harddrives. I know at least one collector-friend who remains pissed that Mattel is even including the New Adventures characters in this line, but I can’t see the reasoning behind getting upset about it. If you don’t like them, don’t buy them. Simple as that. Personally, I’m actually stoked to see these characters appear streamlined into a series of figures that is all inclusive to all aspects of the Masters Universe. Just like with the Princess of Power figures, this guy has a sticker on the front pointing out he’s part of a subline, in this case it’s one of the “Galactic Protectors.” Unfortunately, I didn’t save Icarius’ bio card from the back of the package, and now its been so long since I opened him, I can’t remember anything about him. So, let’s just move on to the figure itself.
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A big part of what makes Icarius such a cool figure is his gear, but we’re going to start off looking at the base figure, and that means not only setting his gear aside, but also popping on his alternate, unhelmeted head. He’s a somewhat generic looking guy in a two-tone blue suit. His soft plastic blue vest, complete with sculpted hoses and components is removable to reveal a plain blue painted torso. His silver boots are designed to go with his flight gear, so they do look a little out of place when Icarius isn’t wearing all his stuff. I should also note that for some reason Icarius’ arms look rather short to me. It’s odd, since I haven’t had an issue with the arms on any other MOTUC figure. Maybe its the little bit of bulk added by the vest. Either way, it’s not a dealbreaker for the figure, just something that irks me a bit. Icarius’ alternate head has a flattop haircut and a chizzled face that looks like a lot like Arnold Schwartzenaggar to me. Whether the likeness was intentional or not, I believe this is one of the lines better head sculpts, as its very detailed and sports a lot of realism.
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Icarius weapon consists of a metal sleeve for his arm onto which are mounted two missiles. Holy shit, this guy doesn’t mess around with guns. Guns are for pansies. Nope, he just fires a pair of stinger missiles right off of his arm and into your face. He escalates things quickly. If just a couple of missiles makes him seem light on the accessories, don’t worry because his flight gear more than makes up for it. I do have two minor quibbles about the missile rack. One, it doesn’t seem to fit his arm very well. If you move the arm around it’s likely to fall off. Second, I wish the missiles had been sculpted separately so you can display him having fired one off.
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The flight gear consists of his helmeted head with flip down visor and his glorious winged jetpack. The visor on the helmet simply clips onto the dimples on the side of the helmet and you can remove it entirely if you want. It’s also cleverly designed so that when you flip it up it looks like it’s just part of the helmet.
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The jet pack on the other hand is an amazingly cool piece. It pegs right onto Icarius’ vest and stays in place very securely. The sculpt features a ton of detail, right down to the fan vents on the tops of the engines and the various panel lines and fins. The tubes at the end of the wings hold the missiles, which just drop in, and while they do stay put, you can flick them to fire them, sort of like the flick-fire missiles featured in a lot of Lego sets. The wings are hinged, so that you can angle them back a bit. The whole ensemble is easily one of the most impressive accessories in the line so far. On the downside, Icarius is a bit back heavy when wearing his flight gear, so you may want to display him in the back of the shelf, using the wall as support.
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I can wholly understand how some of the more diehard MOTU fans might feel that Icarius here doesn’t fit in with the other figures. I can see that. I’ll even concede that a lot of my love for this figure comes from seeing him as a stand alone piece. He reminds me a lot of some of the cool forgotten lines of the 80’s like the Centurions. So even if he doesn’t fit in all that well with his fellow MOTUC figures, I still think he’s an awesome figure, with just a few minor flubs here and there, and I’m mighty glad to have him in my collection. Either way he’ll still look fine on the shelf as he waits for some of the other Galactic Defenders to arrive.
Sep 15 2011

Matty Sale Day… Yawn!

Yes, folks, today was Matty Sale Day, albeit not a terribly interesting one. Ghostbusters was a no show, although I haven’t picked up any of the Ghostbusters figures in a long while anyway, so that’s fine with me. In the DC Universe, there were two new JLU 3-packs. I’ve collected JLU from time to time, but I think that ship has mostly sailed for me. I was slightly tempted to go for the Jay Garrick/ Alan Scott/ Carter Hall set, but my willpower held out. There was also a Retro Action style Green Lantern. Blah!

MOTU Classics debuted two new figures. One is Hurricane Hordak, which I am passing on. You can kind of equate this guy to Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor. I’m not knocking him, but I’m pretty much done buying variants of the same character in this line and the original MOTUC Hordak release is just so perfect to me, I don’t need to sully my shelf with another. In keeping with the Evil Horde theme, the other new figure is Leech. I waffled quite a bit on this guy before finally deciding to pass him over. This one is just a little too goofy even for my MOTU Classics shelves… and man, that’s saying quite a lot. If I was buying something else to combine shipping, I might have picked him up, but that wasn’t the case. The reissue is Chief Carnivous, a figure that I picked up the first time around. Sorry, Matty Collector, no monies for you this month! Wow, it feels good to say that for a change.

Lastly, Matty has announced that they are extending their subscriptions again, starting Saturday and promise that this will be the last time. I already have my Voltron Club Lion Force sub purchased, and I haven’t changed my mind about passing on Club Eternia again. I am, however, going forward and buying the DC Universe sub. Now, I know, some will say I should have shown support and done this back when the sub was in danger of not going through. Some others will say it was never in danger of not going through. The point is, a) I wasn’t confident enough to give Digital River my money for something that might not happen and b) I wasn’t going to subscribe if I didn’t know who the exclusive figure was going to be. Now that I know the sub is a go and I know the Club Exclusive is Metron, I’m happy to sign up. Oops, I guess Matty Collector is getting some of my monies this month. Damn!

Meanwhile, on the home front, I picked up a bunch of Marvel movie figures, as mentioned in today’s feature. I also got a nice box on my stoop with a pair of Ban Dai’s Thundercats Classic figures and Koto’s new Ghostbusters statue. Plenty of fun stuff to look at going into the weekend!