TRI-KLOPS — REVELATION

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: MASTERVERSE (MATTEL)

It’s been a little bit since I just took some time to focus on Masters of the Universe, so I guess that’s the thing I’m gonna be doing this week.  There’s a bunch of new upcoming stuff being shown off by Mattel, and there’s also a bunch of stuff making its way to retail as well.  We had a little bit of a gap in Masterverse releases, but it one fell swoop, we’ve gotten the next main assortment, as well as a bunch of deluxes, all at once.  That’s pretty fun.  Thus far, everything is still based on Revelation, which suits me just fine.  Revelation focused in on not only showcasing the classic good vs evil aesthetic of the vintage Masters line, but also deconstructed it post-He-Man and Skeletor’s disappearance.  One of my favorite aspects of the time skip’s re-alignment was seeing the new factions and splinter groups that arose in the aftermath.  In particular, Henry Rollins as cult leader Tri-Klops was just an absolutely spot-on character choice, and, would you look at that, now it’s got a toy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tri-Klops is part of the deluxe line-up for Mattel’s Masters of the Universe: Masterverse line.  While last year’s Skelegod figure used the deluxe price-point to justify a larger and more involved figure, Tri-Klops instead uses it to justify effectively being two figures in one, with those two figures being Tri-Klops both before and after the show’s time skip.  No matter which configuration he’s in, the figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation (counting the rotating eye, which, yes, works on both of the heads).  At his core, Tri-Klops is using the standard male barbarian style body, also seen on He-Man and Skeletor, leaning more heavily into the He-Man parts.  This time around, I didn’t experience the same weird issue with the hips sticking, so it seems that at least some improvements have been made to the mold, or at the very least its associated QC.  The only adjustments made to the core body are the shoulders, which now sport a little bit of tech detailing, consistent with Tri-Klops’ design from the show.  The primary look for the figure, at least going by how the box advertises him, is his cult leader attire from after the time skip.  He’s got a new head and armor/tabard overlay for this look, as well as a cloth goods robe piece to complete the ensemble.  It matches well to the show design, and also fits well to the core body.  I love the goofy headgear, and the detailing on the cult gear is nice and slick.  To change him over to his classic look, he gets an extra head and armor piece, which, coupled with removing the robe, manages to give him a pretty convincingly different figure.  Everything swaps out easily enough as well, meaning it’s really not an issue swapping them back and forth.  Tri-Klops’ paint work between the two designs is generally pretty solid.  The application is generally pretty clean, though there is a bit of slop, especially when it comes to all those eyes.  They definitely need to be checked to make sure you’re getting the best option.  Overall, though, he looks pretty solid.  In addition to the extra parts necessary for the two looks, Tri-Klops also includes his sword and two different sets of hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I dig Tri-Klops, especially when it comes to his 200x iteration.  Less so his original version, so I was iffy on how he’d be portrayed in the new show.  That said, I liked the Henry Rollins angle, and liked the crazy cult leader angle even more.  I love the new design, and he was on my short list of figures I really wanted.  I dig the deluxe treatment a lot here, and he’s really just exactly what I wanted, making him quite possibly my favorite figure to come out of the line to date.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.