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.