Oct 18 2016

ThunderCats Classics: Lion-O by Mattel

After a slight delay and having his entire toy line collapse out from under him, Matty’s Lion-O finally arrived at my doorstep last week. Of course, he was unceremoniously preceded by the SDCC Thunder Kittens, which I looked at a few weeks back, right around the same time Matty announced they were closing up shop. Since then Super7, who inherited Matty’s Masters license, exhibited at the New York Comic Con with lots of Masters of the Universe Classics teasers, but not a peep about Thundercats. Yes, I think I’m finally prepared to concede this line is dead after this year, but I’m going to try not to focus on that in this feature and just look at this figure for what it is. I will, however, make some comparisons to the Bandai figures from several years back.

The packaging and presentation here is quite nice. There’s a black mailer box with the Thundercats logo and the Eye of Thundera on the front and some additional art on the side panels.

Inside the mailer box you get this really slick looking window box. And yes, that’s a cat hair stuck to the bubble of the package. Is that meta or irony? I’m really not sure. Anyway, the figure is presented against a bright red backdrop and the artwork on the bottom shows Lion-O gazing into the Sword of Omens with the blade extending upward in the form of molded detail in the window. On the bottom, there’s a flap that opens to allow you to pull the tray out. The back of the package features some very colorful artwork and a blurb about Lion-O himself. I’m totally blown away by the presentation here. It’s just fantastic and totally collector friendly. I don’t keep a lot of my toys’ packaging, but this one I sure as hell will be hanging onto. Let’s get the Lord of the Thundercats out of the package and check him out…

The idea here was to recreate the Thundercats in the Masters Classics style and while I was dubious at first, I have to say it works brilliantly. This is certainly the Lion-O that I know and love and I didn’t already know that he was developed with the Masters Classics in mind, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed until I picked him up and played with him and felt a lot of the similarities. I think the buff proportions look great on him and his outfit is executed beautifully. The detail on the exposed mid-riff area maybe looks a little off. It’s a little too much like it was chiseled out of plastic, but it’s not something that really hurts the overall look of the figure for me. The detailing on the belt is great and the shade of blue they used for his vest and boots is perfect. The paint on my figure is very sharp.

In the cartoon, Lion-O used the Claw Shield as a sheath for the Sword of Omens when it was in its dagger form. To simulate that, you get the Claw Shield with the Sword of Omens hilt sculpted in it and the whole thing pegs onto his belt. Now, on the one hand, Bandai was able to give us a Claw Shield with a removable Sword of Omens on each of their Classics Lion-O’s. On the other hand, Matty’s version of the Shield looks so much better than what Bandai gave us. Here, we get actual sculpted fur, as well as painted knuckles and claws, whereas the Bandai version of this piece was just smooth gold plastic. I’m not saying that Matty couldn’t have still made it work with a removable sword, but I still prefer what we got here, based on the aesthetics alone.

I find that I’m still mulling over the head sculpt. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time it feels a little off. There might be a wee too much Masters styling in there. I think it leans a bit toward being an interpretation of Lion-O than an attempt at recreating the animated character. I suppose you could argue the same thing about MOTUC He-Man, even the Filmation one, versus the figure. I think Bandai was on the right track with their larger Lion-O figure, but at the same time, the sculpt was way too soft. Here, you get much more defined features. In the end, I guess this is leaning toward more like what a realistic Lion-O might look like and I’m OK with that. Lion-O’s hair must be pretty tough to do in a 3D representation like an action figure, but I think they did a fine job with it.

The articulation is exactly what I’ve come to expect from the Masters Classics line and that has it’s good and bad points. The MOTUC articulation is great when compared to the vintage figures, but it’s feeling a little dated to me now. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the hips. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is ball jointed. The points are all there, and the hinges in the wrists are a nice bonus, but the range of motion is stifled by the muscle sculpt. Bandai’s figures had mostly the same points, but a better range of motion. On the other hand, this figure feels a lot more solid and better built.

In addition to the Claw Shield that pegs to the belt, Lion-O comes with another one that he can wear simply by popping off his left hand and popping the Shield onto it. And while I nitpicked the belt version having the sword sculpted in as part of it, the wearable Shield can indeed hold the small version of the Sword of Omens that comes with the figure. This Claw has all the same great sculpting paint as the other one.

The small Sword of Omens is a nicely sculpted little piece with some great paintwork as well. The hilt is left matte silver while the blade itself is painted with metallic silver paint. The paint used for the closed Eye of Thundera is also sharp and clean.

And naturally, you get the Sword of Omens in all it’s… um, fully erect glory. This is a great little recreation of the majestic weapon, right down to the detail in the curled crossguard and a tiny Eye of Thundera painted every bit as neatly as the larger one on his belt buckle. Again, the hilt is left matte silver plastic while the blade is painted with a metallic shade to make it really pop. The plastic used here is a lot stouter than the stuff Bandai used for theirs, leading to a lot less warping and bending. Lion-O also comes with an extra left hand with a looser grip that makes it easier to hold the sword in both hands. But the big question is… can he be posed consulting the sword’s Sight Beyond Sight?

Yes, he can!

When Bandai’s Lion-O’s came out, I thought they were decent figures. The original, larger version was my favorite of the two and there’s still a lot I love about that release. I was interested to see if Matty’s version would replace him and after spending some time with this figure, I have to say that he has. Blending Thundercats with Masters Classics was an interesting experiment and it’s almost surprising to me how well it played out in the end. Lion-O is a great looking figure and I’m finding it pretty hard to put him down since he landed on my desk sometime last week. And yes, here’s where I throw in what a shame it is that a figure this good is part of a line that will yet again be cut short. Actually, at this point it’s not so much a shame as it is a cruel joke the universe seems to be playing on us poor Thundercats collectors.

Sep 10 2016

ThunderCats Classics: Wilykit and Wilykat (SDCC Exclusive) by Mattel

Yes, folks, I’m sort of cheating on this fine Anime Saturday morning. Obviously this day is set aside for figures based on proper anime, but today I’m bending the rules so I can finally look at this set based on the Thundercats cartoon, which at least counts as animation, and a tenuous hook on which to hang today’s Feature. I was so excited for this set when it was first revealed. I cursed it for being a convention exclusive, but I vowed I would pay whatever price was needed. In the end, I was able to get it off of the soon to be defunct Matty Collector site with little difficulty and since then it’s been sitting in the corner silently mocking me. I should be cherishing this Feature, but I’m more in a mind of just wanting to get it over with…

Of course, the reason for my onset of Thundercats induced depression is because the line may already be dead. With Matty Collector going under at the end of the year and transferring their licenses to indie toy company, Super7, it seems unlikely (albeit not impossible) that Thundercats Classics will survive the switch. That means that after two false starts from Bandai, the dream of getting a full set of Thundercats figures based on the classic cartoon may still be only just that… a dream. With that rousing introduction out of the way, I’m going to try as hard as I can to not let any of the behind-the-scenes politics to cloud my opinions on these Thunder Kittens.

The packaging for this set sure is nice. I don’t know whether it was ever really an SDCC exclusive, few things are these days, but the presentation sure points to it being something special. The set comes in an illustrated black shipper box with the Eye of Thundera logo and the figures’ names below it.
Inside, you get a fantastic looking window box that shows off the figures and their accessories beautifully. The back and side panels feature some rather pretty character art, and the whole thing unfolds into an illustrated display stage with The Cat’s Lair in the background. Getting the figures and all the accessories out can be a pain, thanks to those terrible plastic ties that all these companies seem to be using now. Also, you’ll want to be super careful opening up the stage, which serves as a storage for the hoverboard display stands. Ultimately, Matty went all out for the presentation here and I absolutely respect and appreciate that.

And here are WilyKit and WilyKat out of the package. The figures themselves are special for being really the first time we’re getting proper figures of the Thunder Kittens. I believe LJN originally released them as static PVC figurines. They later got better releases, but still felt a little wanting. Even the 2011 reboot figures were rather insubstantial in the 3 3/4-inch scale and not released at all into Bandai’s 6-inch scale. The sculpts on these kittens are pretty solid. They do a nice job capturing both the character portraits as well as the classic costumes. Kat features his two-tone brown belted tunic and buccaneer boots. Kit features her ragged-cut dress and spats. Both figures have places on their belts where you can peg in the coiled versions of their weapons. Overall, there’s a very nice balance here between detail and adhering to the simple animated look.

The articulation here is identical on both figures, and it’s safe to say these are the best articulated versions of the kittens we’ve yet to see. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The ankles are hinged, the waists and wrists have swivels, and the necks are ball jointed. Hinges in the wrists would have been nice and the tunic and dress do inhibit the hip movement a bit, but otherwise I really have no complaints when it comes to the pose-ability here.

Unfortunately, the paint quality runs hot and cold. Most of the paint on these are fine, but there are some flubs that have no business being on a pair of $60 figures in this scale. Oddly enough these mostly appear on my Kat, while Kit has escaped largely unscathed. The biggest offender is on my Wilykat’s face, where there’s a large glob of paint on his left cheek just beside his nose. There’s also a lot of paint chipping on his right arm just below his wrist bracer. Some of the lines could also be sharper.

Each of the kittens come with some extra hands. These are all pretty standard with the exception of the one sculpted with an effects part for Kat’s smoke bombs. The sculpt and paint on this piece are fantastic, but if memory serves, the purpose was to throw these and have them burst into a smokescreen, so why would they already be smoking in his hand? Am I missing something?

You also get deployed versions of each kittens weapon. Kat comes with his whip and Kit comes with her pink lasso. It’s worth pointing out that on the back of the box, it mentions Wilykit having a hypnotic flute as one of her weapons. It’s not included with the figure, but then unless I’m mis-remembering the flute was something they introduced in the 2011 reboot. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve watched my original Thundercats DVDs, so I could be entirely off base on that one. Either way, it probably shouldn’t have been mentioned on the box.

The hoverboards are nice pieces, but the paint on these could have been better. Again, the issue seems to mostly affect Kat’s board and not Kit’s. Kat’s board just looks dirty on the top surface with all sorts of scratches and stray paint marks, and the edging lines aren’t really that sharp. Someone at the factory really had it out for WilyKat that day. If this set were a regular release that I had picked up through a regular retailer, I would have demanded an exchange for another one.

The clear stands secure pretty well to the bottoms of the boards and they hold them beautifully thanks to a pretty strong ball joint. Each stand features a sculpted Eye of Thundera. The figures attach to the boards via standard foot pegs and they look great riding them.

Finally, we have the stage, which folds out from the packaging. Even better, it can be folded back together so the figure can be returned to the packaging without any issues. I absolutely love when companies do this sort of thing and in this case it goes a long way to help justify the price point here. The artwork is beautiful and the figures look fantastic displayed on it. It’ll look fantastic at the back of a shelf with the kittens on the stage and whatever other figures we manage to get posed standing in front of it.

Also, if you’re wondering, the kittens scale pretty well with Bandai’s first pair of Thundercats Classics, Lion-O and Tygra.

If I set aside all the ill will I’m feeling toward Matty and their Thundercats Classics right now, this set really only suffers from some piss-poor paint QC, and I’m willing to concede that issue might be isolated to my particular set. If the paint on my Wilykit figure and board wasn’t such an issue, I’d be free to gush on about how much I adore these figures, the accessories, and the overall presentation. Even if we never do wind up with a complete set of Classics out of this line, it’s nice to finally have decent figures of the Thunder Kittens and knowing that I’ll at least have some of the core team to display them with. Indeed, I’m smitten enough with this set that I’m seriously considering rolling the dice on better paint and picking up a second one. And just because there aren’t enough Uncle Buck references in Thundercats action figure reviews…

“Hey Wilykat… Here’s a quarter. Go downtown and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face.”

May 31 2016

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Tygra by Mezco

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.

Aug 5 2013

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Cheetara by Mezco

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.

Mar 5 2013

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Panthro by Mezco

Ban Dai’s attempt to rekindle the magic of Thundecats may have fizzled out, but thankfully we still have Mezco working to complete the team in epic statue/figure form. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t pick up Panthro until after Cheetara was confirmed. I adore these statues and while Lion-O and Mumm-Ra could hold their own alone on my shelf, I didn’t want to have Panthro be the odd man out if Mezco decided that enough was enough. Of course, by not supporting the line and buying Panthro on release it would have served me right if Mezco abandoned the line because not enough people bought Panthro. But I have since remedied that by pre-ordering Cheetara and I’ll gladly do the same for every new statue Mezco reveals for this line now that it’s hit critical mass. Anyway, he arrived on my stoop a couple of days back, so let’s see if he’s cool enough to hang with the others.

An epic figure requires epic packaging, and that’s certainly what we have here. Panthro comes in a big, heavy window box with the same overall color and feel as Lion-O’s box. One side panel has the gorgeous Thundercats logo running down the side and the other panel has a shot of all the cats in action. It’s a different piece of artwork than what was used for Lion-O’s as it has Panthro wrapping around to the front. The box is totally collector friendly; you just need to clip Panthro’s tie wraps to get him out. You will, however, want to take better care than I did removing his baggied nun-chucks, because the tape will tear the illustration on the back of the tray. I’ve always been a fan of the classic Thundercats artwork and these boxes are fabulous tributes to that colorful animated style. It’s bright, colorful and gorgeous and I will likely keep these boxes for as long as I own the figures.

While the package says “action figure,” you may want to take that term with a grain of salt. The whole statue-vs-figure debate rears its ugly head again! Yes, he has some articulation, which we’ll get to in a bit, but enough of this guy is static for me to question the term action figure, so I’m fine just going with figure. It’s semantics, I know. As for his size… Well, Mezco calls these things Mega-Scale for a reason. They are big. They’re not as big as NECA’s 1/4 scale figures, but you’re still getting an impressively large piece that clocks in at around 14-inches tall.

As with Mezco’s other Mega-Scale figures, Panthro is rotocast, so the sculpt leans a little to the soft side, but even so, I have no complaints about it. Granted, the bulk of the sculpt here is found in Panthro’s muscle definition. The spikes on his harness are stout and durable and he sports his trademark split-toe ninja style boots. He comes out of the box with one hand sculpted to hold his chucks and the other with his palm held out, but we’ll come back to that in a few ticks. Panthro gets by without a whole lot of detailed paintwork, as his color pallet is mostly just purple and lighter purple. Mezco went light on the paint wash, which I think is a good thing as it’s just enough to bring out the details in his muscles. The paint on the sculpted Thundercats emblem is quite good, but I’m thinking that maybe some high gloss finish would have made it pop more. The biggest opportunity for improvement on my figure is the bit of bleeding around the base of his harness spikes, but even that isn’t so bad.

Mezco captured Panthro’s portrait quite well. He’s definitely in kick-ass mode, with just a bit of a scowl, but they didn’t overdo it with the ferocity in his expression, so if I choose to pose him with his chucks at rest, the expression will work well enough for me. The paint on the eyes is super crisp, but mine has a little bit of odd paint marks around his lips and the tip of his nose. I’m not sure if this is just a wash that’s gone wrong, but eventually I will try to clean it up a bit with a magic eraser.

Ok, here comes articulation. Panthro has ten points, as follows: A ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivel cuts in the wrists, swivel cuts at the top of his boots, and swivel cuts in his ankles. He also has a swivel in his waist. The four swivels in his legs are mainly to tweak him so he can stand depending on what you do with his arms and waist. With the neck, shoulder, and wrist joints, you can certainly get a few different display options, but the biggest choice in displaying him actually comes from one of his extra pieces.

None of the official photos I saw of this guy showed him holding his chucks in both hands. I was hoping and hoping that he would come with a swappable left hand, and I was very happy to see that he does. Heck, it even says so right on the box. While I like the idea of holding his chucks in one hand, the fact that they use a real chain between them means that one is always just going to be dangling, unless you want to get creative and maybe run one of the twisty ties through the chain to give it a dynamic swinging look. Nope, my Panthro will always be displayed grabbing his chucks in both hand and ready to smack down some mutants, and I’m really glad Mezco gave us the option.

I always dug Panthro in the original cartoon, because he wasn’t a stereotypical character. He was both a big burly fighter, but he had the smarts to invent and work on all of the Thundercats tech. He’s exactly the kind of cat-of-all-trades that you want in your corner if you find yourself marooned on a hostile planet. Mezco’s figure certainly does the character justice. He isn’t as packed with extras like Lion-O, nor does he have any flashy mixed media like Mumm-Ra, but Panthro comes with everything he needs. And most importantly, he looks great standing next to Lion-O and once we get a few more cats, this is going to be one seriously epic display. At $35, this guy is a whole lot of figure at a ridiculously reasonable price point.

And now… the long wait until Summer for Cheetara to be released.

Jan 4 2013

FigureFan’s Disappointments of 2012, Part 2

Thought yesterday was depressing? Oh no. Don’t pass out on me. Not yet… Here’s the last five.

Thundercats: 6-inch Classic Lion-O by Ban Dai… Make no mistake, I don’t think this is a bad figure. It certainly has issues, like unpainted joints and an unfortunate head sculpt, but it’s still a solid figure. So why does it appear here? Because it was completely unnecessary. The 8-inch Lion-O was probably my favorite figure of 2011, and there was no reason for Ban Dai to backpedal on it. Nonetheless, Ban Dai got hammered by fans for making the figure in the oddball 8-inch scale and then when they relented and re-released the figure in a more standard 6-inch scale, collectors railed against them for starting over. I’m not saying Ban Dai didn’t mishandle a few things with the Thundercats license (that Tower of Omens was a piece of shit!) but overall I like what they delivered and I was sorry to see the line not work out. This Lion-O figure represented the beginning of the end for the revival of Classic Thundercats and while I still bought it to support the line, just looking at it makes me sad.

Transformers Generations: Fall of Cybertron Jazz by Hasbro… Poor Jazz represents everything that is wrong with Transformers these days. He’s too small, too simple, has too few paint apps, and he’s too expensive. Compare him with the Deluxe toys from War for Cybertron and he just comes up wanting in every possible way. While some figures in the line have escaped these cutbacks, Jazz personifies the struggle that Hasbro and other toy companies are having producing quality product against the rising costs of plastic and production.

Mass Effect 3: Miranda by Big Fish… I know what you’re thinking… Thane was way worse than Miranda. True, but I wasn’t looking forward to Thane, hence he wasn’t really a disappointment. Miranda, on the other hand was a major disappointment. Plus, her left arm fell off. As shitty a figure as Thane was, at least he didn’t break while being removed from the package. This line certainly had its ups and downs, and it’s a shame that Miranda had to be one of the downs.

Young Justice 4-inch Series, Wave 3… Ok, let me clarify. Sportsmaster was in Wave 3 and he was a solid figure, so what I’m really talking about here are those three shitty stealth repaints that I had to buy to finish my Hall of Justice. I’ve honestly bitched about this sorry situation enough in the individual features, culminating in my need to go onto Ebay to get Stealth Kid Flash. Because it wasn’t bad enough Mattel made us buy these, they also made it impossible to find the last figure in the wave. This situation, my friends, is customer appreciation at its finest.

DC Universe Classics: Orange Lantern Lex Luthor… What is it with Mattel making me buy shitty figures to complete Collect & Connect constructs? They’re evil marketing geniuses that’s what. I hated this figure so much that I actually considered paying more to get just the C&C part off of Ebay so I wouldn’t have to admit to having purchased the figure. He’s pure garbage, and while he might appeal to collectors with a translucent plastic fetish, all he does for me is make me mad when I see him peeking out from the back of my Lantern shelf.

And there’s the light at the end of the tunnel and we have emerged into 2013. We’re done with canned recycled retrospective feature week and tomorrow I’ll be back with the first new feature of the year.

Jan 2 2013

FigureFan’s Favorites 2012, Part 2

Second verse, same as the first. And again in no particular order…

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Mumm-Ra by Mezco… I had such high hopes for the Thundercats in 2011. Some of it paid off. I got some decent figures and the 8-inch Classic Lion-O proved to be my favorite figure from that year. But 2012 saw the prospects of a continued line die a slow death. In the end, I had to live vicariously through Mezco and the hopes they might keep the Classic Thunderkitty goodness going with their Mega-Scale statues. In 2012 we got Mumm-Ra and Panthro. I still haven’t opened my Panthro yet, but Mumm-Ra proved to be another outstanding effort in this line. I love this big guy, and I think he was one of the best values of the year.

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro… I’m sorry to say it, but overall Marvel Universe has been disappointing me lately. Maybe the Marvel Legends figures are just pushing their smaller cousins out of my field of interest. It’s also possible that I’m just evolving beyond the 3 3/4” scale. GI Joe and Star Wars were the only lines that really tied me to it, and I don’t collect a lot of those anymore. Maybe the new 3 ¾” Doctor Who figures will bring me back. Either way, the MU figures this year have been competent enough, but not spectacular. The exception to that, however, was Cable, a figure executed so well that he barely feels like an MU figure at all.

Green Lantern Classics: Collect & Connect Stel by Mattel… I came into 2012 with a lot of Green Lantern fatigue from that shitty movie and the carpet bombing of marketing that followed it. But that didn’t stop the franchise from producing one of my favorite figures this year. Sure, Stel is a C&C figure, but he’s amazing in every way. The sculpt, the coloring, the articulation… he’s got it all. I never had much affinity for the character, but he certainly made for some excellent action figure fodder and Mattel went above and beyond.

Marvel Legends: Punisher by Hasbro… It may be because Frank Castle has been absent from my collection for so long, but this figure really hit the spot for me. It captures all there is about the character, he comes with all sorts of great weapons, and I just can’t stop playing around with him. One of the greatest compliments I can pay an action figure is to keep it standing on my desk, rather than regulate it to the shelves in the other room, and Punisher has been on my desk ever since I opened him up. It seems like I can’t go more than an hour without reaching over and picking him up.

Hot Toys’ Captain America: The First Avenger… 2012 was the year I finally broke down and bought some Hot Toys figures and Cap was my first. I was really apprehensive about blowing the money as I am generally not a 1:6 scale collector and I was a little afraid that the figure would be lost on me. Nonetheless, from the moment I had the package in hand, I knew there were no regrets. Cap’s outfit in this movie is my favorite design and I just had to have it in this epic format. While I doubt I will ever go all out into collecting Hot Toys in a hardcore manner, I can certainly see myself grabbing two or three a year.

And that’s all the good stuff… tomorrow we’ll start the one-two punch to the gonads that make up my biggest disappointments of 2012… Hang tight, ya’ll are already halfway through this wonderful week of shitty filler articles!

Sep 19 2012

Thundercats: 6-inch Series: Tygra by Ban Dai

Looking back at the Thundercats re-launch makes me a sad kitty. I thought the new series was excellent, although I drifted away from it because of the gaps in the release of new episodes. I loved the toys, and I know I was largely a minority on that point, but I thought the 6-inch figures were great, even if they did have unpainted joints, and I thought the 4-inch figures were loads of fun. I did everything I could to support the line at retail, but it seemed like it was doomed to slip away from the very beginning. Of course, the problem with a re-launch is when it fizzles out, like Thundercats did, it’ll likely be a while before anyone else touches it. And considering how long it took for Thundercats to get its second chance at bat, it may be a very long time indeed.

Well, we’re revisiting this dead line today because I finally picked up the last of the 6-inch releases. [I just realized I never did look at the 6-inch Mumm-Ra either, but we’ll come back to him some other week. –FF] As is often the case when a line dies, the last releases are hard to find, and for a while Tygra was going for insane monies on the secondary market. I finally found him for a fairly reasonable price on Amazon, so let’s check out the last of the Thundercats team in this scale.

Once again we see that if you are a mint-on-card collector, you don’t want to buy from Amazon because they don’t give a shit when their packing your toys. This time, the figure was jammed into a box that was too small, so the card flap was bent all the way over. I know, I don’t really care, I tear these things open most of the time, so if I’m getting free second day shipping, I’m willing to deal with a mangled package in most cases. As with the other 6-inch figures, Tygra comes in a huge bubble on a fitted card. I always thought this was attractive and serviceable packaging, although I was never fond of the tri-lingual stuff. The bubble uses a personalized insert with Tygra’s character art and a sticker that boasts 18-points of articulation. The back of the card shows a photo of the figure along with some of the other figures that are available.

I was not a big fan of the character Tygra in the new series, but after only a few moments in my hand, I was sure that his is one of my favorite figures in the 6-inch line. For starters, the head sculpt is excellent. It doesn’t have any of the soft sculpt problems that Lion-O or Cheetara has. Tygra’s face is very well defined and the paintwork is outstanding. The body and armor are also very well sculpted. There are parts of the armor that look like they could be detached, even though they’re actually sculpted as part of the figure. The armor is all cast in a nice deep matte green plastic, while the painted tiger stripes on Tygra’s exposed fur skin are expertly applied. I would have liked a bit more gloss on the Thundercats emblem, but at least it looks nice and crisp. The silver belt is a separate piece and detachable, but it is fitted so well to the figure that it looks and feels like it’s a part of him. The silver belt includes a functional holster and some sculpted canisters running across the front.

The joints are still unpainted. It seems less unsightly with Tygra because of his armor, but this was never a big sticking point with me. The exposed screws on the back are rather conspicuous, but again, it doesn’t do anything to ruin the figure for me.

As the package suggests, Tygra has 18 points of articulation. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms have ball joints and swivels in the shoulders, double hinged elbows, and ball joints in the wrists. The legs ball jointed at the hips, double hinged in the knees, and hinged at the ankles. He is also ball jointed at the waist, and it feels like he’s got another joint going on under that chest armor. Hmm… I count 20 points, but more is better so I’m not complaining.

Tygra comes with two accessories. You get his whip and the laser pistol he took off one of the mutants. The whip is just a long piece of bendy blue rubbery plastic with two tails at the end. It certainly serves its purpose and you can work it into different cool poses, as it has just the right amount of flexibility. The gun is a cast in silver plastic, nicely sculptd and fits great in the figure’s right hand so that the trigger finger can go through the trigger guard.

Tygra turned up on Amazon for $24.99 and I jumped at him. Yeah, that’s about $8-10 more than he would have been at retail, but I’m not going to gripe about it. He’s a really cool figure and definitely one of the best, if not the best, figures in this short lived modern 6-inch line. It really makes me sad to know that we won’t be getting the Thunderkittens in this scale, nor Jaga or Grune or any of the mutants. I think Bandai did an alright job with these figures (much better than I originally anticipated) and quite frankly I think collectors were just too hard on them. As mentioned earlier, I still have the 6-inch scale Mumm-Ra sitting around here somewhere, so at some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be revisiting this line just one more time to check him out.

Aug 25 2012

Thundercats: 4-inch Cheetara by Ban Dai

So, Cheetara has been a tough Thundercat figure to get. Apparently she was shortpacked in a lot of the cases, and yet let’s face it, every fanboy wants her. I ultimately hit Teh Bay for my Cheetara figure, and while I certainly paid over retail for her, I didn’t get beaten up all that bad. Either way, I certainly didn’t want to wait any longer to add her to my collection. Was she worth it? Let’s find out…

After looking at the Deluxe figure packages, it’s cool to come back to the simplicity of the Basic figures’ cards. I really do love the way these figures look on the card, and if I ever do start finding these figures at a local brick-and-mortar retailer, I very well might buy a second set to keep carded and hang on the wall. Cheetara looks great standing in her bubble with her quarterstaff beside her.

As far as the sculpt is concerned, Cheetara is among the best of the line. There are some minor proportion issues, like I think Ban Dai shrunk her breasts a bit and enlarged her feet, but minor quibbles aside, this is one great looking figure and definitely faithful to her animated counterpart. She even has her bangles sculpted on her wrists and ankles. The head sculpt is particularly good and I love her the likeness of her face. On the downside, Cheetara is the first figure in the 4-inch line that is adversely effected by the ThunderLynx gimmick. Her long hair is sculpted around the magnet box on her back. Not only does this look kind of awkward, but it means that she has absolutely zero neck articulation. Boo!

The paintwork on my figure is damn near immaculate. The figure has a nice glossy finish everywhere excapt on her face and hair. The paint apps on her face rae perfect, right down to her eyes and lips. There’s no slop or bleeding to be found anywhere. Seriously, Hasbro, take a look at the paint on this little 4-inch figure and try to see what you’re doing wrong. The only downside to the paint is that once again the pins and hinges in the joints aren’t painted.

Cheetara’s articulation is surprisingly different from Lion-O or Tygra. I’ve already mentioned that her head is immobile, and yeah that’s a pretty big downer. She also lacks any articulation in the torso, which is also disappointing. What does she have? Her arms feature universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps. Her legs have swivels in the hips and thighs, and hinged elbows. You can still get plenty of great poses out of this gal, but a lot of the articulation just doesn’t seem as natural and intuitive as in Lion-O or Tygra.

Cheetara isn’t heavy on the accessories. She comes with her quarterstaff and that’s it. The staff is a simple, flexible brown rod.

So how much did I end up ponying up for Cheetara? With shipping she set me back just under twenty bucks. Yeah, it’s a premium for a 4-inch figure, but I really wanted to make sure I had her in my collection and since none of the stores in my area are carrying the Thundercats figures, I didn’t see any chance to get her for much cheaper anytime soon. Problem is, now I’ll probably have to pony up another Andy Jackson for Panthro. But at least than my 4-inch collection will be complete.

May 17 2012

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Mumm-Ra by Mezco

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.

Ah, but we’re not done yet. The soft goods cape is sewn onto the tray, and takes a bit of care and a pair of clippers to get it off. It then attaches to the peg on the back of Mumm-Ra’s neck and on the spikes on each of his arm cuffs. I had to enlarge the center hole a little bit with a pair of scissors, but once on it stays on pretty well and can easily be taken off to return him to the box.

And articulation leads us back to the whole Action Figure Vs Statue debate. From the waist down, Mumm-Ra only has two points of articulation, and those are the swivels from where his feet attach. And in all practicality, these aren’t very useful because he’s designed to stand with his feet positioned in a very specific way. From the waist up, he does a little better. He swivels at the waist, and he has ball joints in his neck and his shoulders. His wrists also have swivel cuts. You can get some slight variations of poses out of him, but he’s clearly designed to stand with arms straight out to best show off his cape and bandages and scare the living shit out of you if you forget he’s standing in the corner and turn on the light. Yeah, that might have actually happened.

Besides being an absolutely fantastic figure, Mumm-Ra impresses even more by the price point. I thought Mega-Scale Lion-O was a steal at $35 and I expected Mezco to raise the price on Mumm-Ra, now that they had hooked collectors with Lion-O. You know how dealers always give the first taste for free. Nevertheless, I picked up Mumm-Ra for the same ridiculously cheap $35. The sculpt is every bit as impressive as their first figure and the decision to deliver a mixed-media figure was nothing less than brilliant. The fabric cape, streamers, and bandages really pushes this figure completely over the top. I’ve already pre-ordered my Panthro, and I sincerely home Mezco keeps going with this line, and at the very least delivers a Tygra and Cheetara. All I know is, I’ll keep buying every one they decide to put out.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: thundercats

ThunderCats Classics: Lion-O by Mattel

ThunderCats Classics: Wilykit and Wilykat (SDCC Exclusive) by Mattel

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Tygra by Mezco

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Cheetara by Mezco

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Panthro by Mezco

FigureFan’s Disappointments of 2012, Part 2

FigureFan’s Favorites 2012, Part 2

Thundercats: 6-inch Series: Tygra by Ban Dai

Thundercats: 4-inch Cheetara by Ban Dai

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Mumm-Ra by Mezco

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