TRI-KLOPS

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

One of the defining traits of Masters of the Universe is its good vs. evil dichotomy. Every release in the line was paired off. One villain for every hero. So far on this site, I’ve only looked at a single evil warrior from the franchise. Today, I’ll be looking at another evil warrior figure. Of course, it’s actually Tri-Klops, the same guy I looked at the last time, so that gets me no points. What can I say? I really like Tri-Klops. But this time, it’s the 200x Tri-Klops, who’s actually a bit different than the original. Let’s see how this one stacks up!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tri-Klops was released in the 2003 series of Masters of the Universe. He stands just under 6 inches tall (due to his slightly crouched stance) and he has 12 points of articulation, plus the spinning visor that is standard to all Tri-Klops figures. Unlike his last figure, this Tri-Klops has a wholly unique sculpt. The body is lean and sharp, which makes him a more believable swordsman, built for agility, which is a nice change. The pose is also quite unique, and great for the character. The outstretched hand in particular is one of my favorites. While the overall look of Tri-Klops is in keeping with the vintage look, it’s the smaller details that exhibit the most changes. The original Tri-Klops was still pretty firmly planted in the world of sword and sorcery. The 200x version, however plays up the sci-fi aspects pretty heavily. Given that he was the resident tech expert of the Evil Warriors, the look is a fairly sensible one. The largest changes to his design are present on the head, which changes the simple ring with three different eyes from the vintage figure into a quite exquisitely detailed technological device, carefully built onto Tri-Klops’ head. It makes Tri-Klops look quite different from his vintage counterpart, and definitely makes him look a lot cooler. The change to more artificial looking eyes also allows for a bit of light-piping to light up the eyes, which is certainly a cool effect. Tri-Klops’ sculpt is really only marred by one thing: his action feature. He’s got a swinging attack on his left arm, which is triggered by a rather obtrusive button on the figure’s back. It’s not the worst thing ever, but it is a bit annoying that it’s so obvious. The paintwork on Tri-Klops is probably some of the better work from the 200x MotU. The colors are good matches for his original palette, and all of the application is clean and tight. Tri-Klops included his sword (which is a very nice piece), as well as one of his little flyer drones, which were new to the 200x version of the character, and a flight stand for the drone.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Tri-Klops was one of the earlier additions to my MotU collection. I think he was the fourth or fifth figure I got. I found him new and in a regular store even, which greatly excited me. Of course, then I took the figure out of the package and made the mistake of dropping him about a foot, which was enough to completely shatter his head into three pieces. He wasn’t the easiest figure to find, so I had to make do with the later repaint figure for a while. Fortunately, Tri-Klops was one of the several figures from the Goodwill find, allowing me to replace my broken Tri-Klops with a proper one, rather than some pants wearing imitation of the real thing. I quite like this figure, and I think he may well be my favorite figure the line had to offer.