Tag Archives: Mattel

#1078: Robin – Dark Knight Returns

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ROBIN – DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

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One of DC’s longest lasting legacy characters is Robin.  It’s fitting, what with Robin being one of the earliest examples of a sidekick in comics.  As many times as legacy characters may be rolled back to prior  incarnations, Robin always seems to keep moving forward.  Since Dick Grayson vacated the role in 1984, there have been many others to take on the title.  The first is, of course, Jason Todd, but a fairly close second (albeit in an alternate future) was Carrie Kelley.  Carrie hails from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, and is easily one of the most distinctive parts of the story.  So, it’s not a huge surprise that Carrie has just gotten an action figure in commemoration of the story’s 35th anniversary.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

carriekelly1Carrie Kelley was released in the Doomsday series of Mattel’s DC Comics Multiverse line.  It’s the same series that features armored Batman and the Mutant Leader, all of which bear the 35th Anniversary insignia.  This is Carrie’s second figure, with the first coming several years ago courtesy of DC Direct.  The figure is 5 1/4 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation.  As with a lot of Mattel’s output, the articulation count may be high, but the figure’s mobility is just so-so.  The elbows and knees can’t even bend a full 90 degrees, which is really weak.  Surely this is all for the sake of the sculpt, though, right?  Well, sort of, but not really.  The head sculpt is easily the best part, as it’s a pretty spot-on recreation of several panels of Miller’s artwork.  There’s one major issue I have with the head, but I’ll touch on that when I get to paint.  The rest of the sculpt is passable at best and mediocre at worst.  The overall appearance is fine, and she looks decent when in a straight standing pose. That being said, if you move her out of a basic standing pose, the sculpt exhibits a carriekelly3large number of flaws, where the articulation just leaves these odd flat spots on the limbs.  Also, the freaking cape block makes it’s awful appearance once again here, and I think this is probably the worst example of it I’ve seen so far.  I’m really not sure why Mattel has no idea how to attach a cape other than a huge solid brick of plastic sticking out of the figure’s back.  It shouldn’t be this hard.  You should be able to have a caped character without giving them a freaking hunchback.  The paintwork on Carrie is alright, but there are a few pressing issues.  The colors are nice and bright, and match up nicely with the comic colors.  The biggest issue here is the lenses of the glasses.  In the comic, Carrie’s eyes are consistently visible through the lenses, but here, they’re opaque.  Matte’s done clear lenses in the past, so I’m not sure why they were left out here.  Carrie includes a sling shot (which she can’t hold very well, due to her right hand only having a hole drilled halfway through, for reasons beyond me), as well as the leg of the New-52 Doomsday.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I found Carrie at Toys R Us a little while ago, while looking for the X-Men Legends figures.  I had been looking forward to this figure to go with the other three figures I’ve got from this set.  I can’t lie, this figure is kinda a letdown.  She’s not a bad figure, but she’s just not up to par with the likes of Hasbro and NECA, or even Funko, all of which are in the same price range.  This figure should have been a home run, but instead she’s just another mediocre figure from Mattel.

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#1040: Wonder Woman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

WONDER WOMAN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

WonderWomanDCUC1

Oh, DC Universe Classics, how you confuse me.  The line had a lot of promise. Heck, it had a lot of success. After all, 20 series at retail is nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately, the whole line was plagued with issues with distribution, strange character choices, and the latter half was really hit by odd design choices for long-awaited characters. Still, early on, the figures really seemed to be really on point. If nothing else, the line gave us some pretty definitive versions of DC’s biggest characters, including today’s focus figure, Wonder Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WonderWomanDCUC2Wonder Woman was released in Series 4 of DC Universe Classics. She served as the series’ “anchor figure,” which seems pretty sensible, what with her being one of DC’s top three characters and all. The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and she has 25 points of articulation. Wonder Woman is based on the look introduced in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s. It’s the look that the character had for a good 20 years or so, so it’s definitely a good choice. It’s also the same costume used by the Super Powers figure, which fits with DCUC’s theme of recreating SP. The figure had a new sculpt at the time, which was meant to serve as a starting point for future female figures. It’s not bad, though it hasn’t aged quite as well as some of the other sculpts from the time. Like the male bucks from the line, there’s the whole shoulder thing, where they just sort of…jut out. At least the line is internally consistent, I guess. The shoulders wouldn’t quite so much of an issue if her arms weren’t as skinny as they are. They aren’t horrid, but they really should be a bit thicker, especially for an Amazon. The waist is also pretty tiny, especially when compared to later figures in the line. On the plus side, the head sculpt is really strong on this particular figure, especially the hair, which has a nice weight and flow about it. Wonder Woman’s paintwork is pretty decent. While she’s not breaking any records or setting the bar, she’s pretty solid. The colors are nice and bold, and everything’s pretty clean. As far as accessories go, Wonder Woman’s a little. The obvious choice is the lasso, but that’s permanently attached. Instead, she gets an axe and a shield, which are fine, but they mean that her hands are in this odd loose grip, instead of a more preferable fist pose. She also included the left leg of Despero, the Collect-N-Connect for Series 4.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Series 4 of DCUC was the first series that I didn’t have much trouble finding at retail. I actually found all but one of the figures at KB Toys just before they went out of business. Which was cool, since they were 60% off and all, but also really sad, since, you know, KB Toys was closing and all. Ultimately, Wonder Woman isn’t one of the strongest figures in the line, she’s still a pretty solid figure, and a pretty good rendition of the character.

#1034: Tom Riddle

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

TOM RIDDLE

HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (MATTEL)

TomRiddle1

Welcome to The Figure In Question, where I refuse to let any of my guest reviewers have an area of coverage all to themselves.  Tim covers Metal Gear?  So do I!  Christian has Amiibo?  Me too!  Super Awesome Girlfriend has some Halo?  I’ve got that covered!  The only guest reviewer with something I hadn’t covered was Jill, over there with Harry Potter.  Well, now I’m doing that too!  That’s right, I bought this figure new,  11 years before starting the site  and 10 years before meeting Jill, all to upstage her.  That’s all it could possibly be!  *ahem*  So, here’s this Tom Riddle figure.  Let’s have a look, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

TomRiddle2Tom Riddle (better known as Voldemort) was released in the second assortment of Mattel’s Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets figures.  He’s based on Christian Coulson’s portrayal of Tom from the second movie (in case the name of the line hadn’t clued you in).  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation.  That may not seem like a lot of articulation, but Tom here was actually one of the best articulated figures in the line, believe it or not.  Tom featured a sculpt that was unique to him.  It’s….well, rudimentary would probably be a good way to describe it.  The proportions are rather off, with poor Tom getting quite the melon of a head.  And, while the face doesn’t look too unlike Coulson, the hair isn’t even close.  It’s a totally different style entirely.  Also, with the upper half of the figure is sculpted very dynamically, the legs just sort of hany there, and, deapite their incredibly obvious joints that are not in the slightest bit worked into the sculpt, there are pretty much no poses that help them match the rest of the sculpt.  The robe has a very nice texturing to it, but none of this texture translates to the rest of the figure, which just make him look even further imbalanced.  The hands are actually not bad, what with the cool sculpted poses.  Of course, the poses mean that he has to have a peg hole in his palm to be able to properly hold his accessory, but it could be worse.  On the plus side, the paint work on Tom is actually pretty decent.  There’s some nice, subtle work, especially on the robe, which looks quite realistic.  Easily the best paint of any of the figures in this line.  Tom was packed with a single accessory, but it’s a good one: the diary that brings Tom “back to life”.  He can sort of hold it, thanks to the peg at the base of the book’s spine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I never really had a lot of the  Harry Potter figures, but, as noted in the intro, I got this guy new.  Chamber of Secrets was my favorite book, and I quite liked the Tom incarnation of Voldemort.  I ended up finding this guy at the KB Toys that used to be near my family’s summer vacation spot.  He, like the rest of Mattel’s output from the movies, hasn’t aged particularly well.  He’s not awful, though.

#1032: Deadshot

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DEADSHOT – SUICIDE SQUAD

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

DeadshotSS1

“…Mama, just killed a man. Put a gun up to his head. Pulled the trigger, now he’s dead!”

Hey, didn’t I start out this week with lyrics from “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Indeed I did! Since Suicide Squad used the song rather prominently in the trailers (and also totally randomly and out of place in the movie), I thought it might be appropriate. It also reminds me of happier times, back when I was reviewing something that had nothing to do with Suicide Squad. Yes, against my better judgement, I went and saw Suicide Squad in the theatre. I wanted to like it. I really did. It had its moments, most of which were while Will Smith’s Deadshot was on the screen, but it was otherwise rather disappointing. Since he was one of the few worthwhile parts of the movie, I’ve picked up a Deadshot figure, from Mattel’s latest round of tie-in products.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DeadshotSS2Deadshot is part of the first half-wave of Mattel’s Suicide Squad-themed DC Comics Multiverse series. Why Mattel insists on shipping these out three figures at a time is beyond me, since the whole B-a-F concept loses a lot of the selling power if the figures that come with the pieces arrive in stores months apart… I’m getting distracted from the figure. Sorry! Deadshot stands about 6 ½ inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation. Several of the joints are severely lacking in range of movement: the head is a ball joint that moves like a cut joint, neither the knees or the elbows can get a full 90 degrees of movement, and the ab-crunch is so limited that it might as well not be there. Sure, he fares better than yesterday’s Grey Fox, but that figure is almost 20 years old, and this one came out last month. Compared to what Hasbro’s been doing with Marvel Legends, this guy feels very behind the times. At the very least, the sculpt is pretty decent. The overall look of the design has been translated pretty well into figure form. The detailing on the clothes is a little on the basic side, but it’s about what you’d expect from a Mattel figure. The wrist guns could stand to be a little more pronounced, but that’s minor. The proportions are pretty decent; no weirdly elongated or widened bits here. The figure features both a masked and an unmasked heads. The masked head is the stronger of the two. The details are nice and sharp, and there’s even a bit of texture work. The unmasked head is a little on the softer side, especially on the beard. It’s a decent enough Will Smith likeness, though he seems a little more gaunt here than he is in the film. Deadshot’s paint is a bit of a mixed bag. The overall look isn’t terrible (I don’t even mind the slightly brighter palette), and there are even a few cool little details, such as the little phrase written on his collar. That said, there are a few spots that are just missing paint apps all together, like the straps for his shoulder pads, the ankle knife, and the guns at the back of his belt. And, as cool as the collar is, I feel like the graffiti on the costume should be an all or nothing sort of deal. Of the two heads, the masked one once again pulls ahead, with some nice small detail work. The unmasked isn’t awful, but the beard looks beyond fake. In addition to the extra head, Deadshot includes a small handgun. For a guy whose whole shtick is guns and shooting, that’s very underwhelming, especially since we didn’t even get the rifle that he’s seen carrying in just about every promotional image. Would one more piece really have killed them? He also has the right arm of the Killer Croc Build-A-Figure. If I let it sit long enough, do you think I can grow a whole Croc figure?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this guy on my birthday, as part of the expedition to various toy stores that made up the better part of the evening. It was a week prior to the release of the movie, but I figured that I liked Will Smith and I liked Deadshot, so, even if the movie was bad, I could still enjoy the figure. That’s pretty much exactly how it turned out. I know the review’s a little down on the guy (in my defense, I got him the same day as the Marvel Legends Black Panther. That guy set a really high bar), but I actually don’t think he’s awful. Yes, he has his flaws, but the good outweighs the bad. Plus, he’s a Will Smith Deadshot figure. That forgives a lot of sins.

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#1010: Armored Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ARMORED BATMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

ArmoredBatman1

You know how I’m always hating on Mattel? And you know how I just reviewed a whole week of Mattel figures? What’s the best thing for me to review the day after an over-a-week run of Mattel figures? Another Mattel figure, of course! Boy do I looooove me some Mattel…

So, today, I’m jumping back over to the DC side of things, with a Batman figure. I know, that’s a very rare occurrence. But this Batman’s special. This one’s a puffy Batman! Okay, actually, he’s from Dark Knight Returns, the Batman story that forever changed the face of comics, whether we like it or not. Now, this isn’t just a generic Batman from the story, but one from his climactic showdown with Superman, making it the perfect accent piece for this guy. Despite there being a number of toys based on DKR and this being both a distinctive and unique look from the story, this is its first appearance in three-dimensional form. Let’s see how it turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ArmoredBatman2Armored Batman is one of the three DKR-based figures from the latest series of Mattel’s larger scale DC Comics Multiverse. The figure stands roughly 7 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation. Just about all of Mattel’s DKR figures have been built from pieces that structurally similar to the figures from Masters of the Universe Classics. While this Batman is stylistically very similar to the others, the only pieces he shares with the prior Batman and Superman are the upper and lower torso parts, and even those are completely covered by add-ons. The rest of the figure’s sculpt is all-new, and it’s pretty impressively handled. It does a very good job translating the design from the comics into three dimensions. In fact, it’s probably the most comic-faithful figure so far in this particular sub-set, since the large quantity of new pieces means that none of Miller’s tinier details have been left out. Each piece of armor has little wrinkles, and the face depicts an old, grizzled Bruce Wayne, which we didn’t really see on the last two figures that Mattel did. Really, the only complaint I can raise about this figure is that he falls victim to Mattel’s continued insistence on attaching capes with unnecessarily large chunks of plastic that plug into the figures’ backs. Is there absolutely no way they could make that connector any smaller? Oh well. Batman’s paintwork isn’t bad. It’s certainly better than Superman’s was. There’s a bit of slop, especially around the edges of the belt, but the overall appearance is pretty good. Batman is packed with the rifle he uses with this armor in the story. Unfortunately, he can’t really hold it very well, since neither of his hands is sculpted to hold it. He also includes the head and pelvis of the New 52 Doomsday, for those that care about such things.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, as I noted in my review of Superman, I’m only a moderate fan of The Dark Knight Returns. I do, however, love the issue with the fight between Superman and Batman. Since I already had Superman, I was looking forward to getting this guy. That being said, he wasn’t quite at the top of my list for this particular series. So, when I found this series at Target, this wasn’t the figure I intended to buy. No, I really, really wanted to buy the new Supergirl figure, based on the TV series. Target even had two of her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it, because the figure just looked so terrible. I’m getting off topic. I ended up going with this guy because, while he may be ugly, at least he’s supposed to be. This isn’t a perfect figure, but he’s still pretty fun.

#1009: Castle Grayskull

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

CASTLE GRAYSKULL

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

Grayskull1

Playsets for action figures are by and large a thing of the past. They were really big in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and even kept up steam for a good part of the ’90s, but a general trending towards less interest in action figures coupled with rising costs of plastics has made them less than practical. Sure, you still see the occasional set here and there, but they lack the charm of the older sets. Occasionally, an attempt is made at recapturing that charm for a more collector-oriented market. A few years back, Mattel used their online store Matty Collector to get enough backers to fund a high(ish)-end version of Castle Grayskull, an important part of the He-Man mythos. This not a review of that. Nope, this is a review of its direct predecessor. Well, most of it anyway. Let’s get to the review!

THE PLAYSET ITSELF

Grayskull7Castle Grayskull was released as a deluxe playset during the first year of the 2002 Masters of the Universe line. The Castle is designed to fit with the basic 6-inch figures Mattel offered. It’s actually about half-scale. In its defense, even the much larger, much more expensive Castle Grayskull was only three-quarter-scale, and that one wasn’t even vying for valuable retail shelf space. As it is, it’s definitely undersized, but it’s large enough that it suits the purpose it was built for pretty well. The Castle is just about 20 Grayskull2inches tall and 17 inches wide. When the Castle is all folded up, it’s only about 4 inches deep. The exterior of the Castle is pretty impressively detailed, and features a very nice selection of textures, which keep it exciting. Well, for a non-mobile playset anyway. The overall look, though undersized, is a very nice translation of the Castle’s 200x design. As you can probably note from the pictures, the parapets are made up of several Grayskull3different pieces, which clip into place. They were prone to fall off, which is why my set is missing a couple of them. The Castle can unfold, which reveals the interior and increases the depth of the set to 11 inches. The interior of the Castle isn’t quite as nice as the exterior, since it has to fit inside when folded. Still, there are several very nice details, including a spot for weapon storage and even a neat little computer thingy in the corner. I also love the small, easy to overlook details, like the skull and rat on the floor in the prison cell area. For some reason, in the 2000s, toy Grayskull5companies thought that the best way to sell a playset was to work in some weird battery-operated, figure prompted gimmick. Remember the ThunderLynx bit from the Tower of Omens? Well, Castle Grayskull’s got something like that. Each of the figures in the 200x Masters line (well, at least the earlier ones) had a little…thingy imbedded in their foot, which was expressly designed to work with this set. There are several spots on the set where there’s a golden footprint. When a figure’s foot was Grayskull9moved back and forth on this spot, it would release a lever on a door, revealing differing parts of the set or activating traps. Most of them are a little weird and gimmicky, but I do quite like the one on the upper level, which swings open a door revealing a special chrome version of the power sword placed on a nice little pedestal. It’s still really gimmicky, but, c’mon! Chrome! In addition to the aforementioned chrome sword, the Castle included a flag (missing Grayskull6from mine), a big cannon sort of thing, a set of shackles, bars for a cell (also missing), a giant key (because why not?), as well as a large arsenal of weapons, of which I only have the trident. Still, that was a pretty awesome selection of extras, especially given the kind of extras we see nowadays.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

By the time of the 200x Masters line, I had aged out of playsets. Yeah, I know, it shocks me too. Aging out of toys. I was just about aged back into collecting playsets when Mattel’s collector version was released, but it was just far too hefty a price for a moderate Masters fan such as myself. Of course, this more economical set had also gone up quite a bit in price. As you might have guessed (or just have already known, for those of you who paid attention to my Teela review), the Castle was part of the big Goodwill find from several weeks back. I ended up spotting this particular set first, and upon discovering it was only $4.50, I felt like I couldn’t say no. Sure, it’s not complete, but it was also super cheap, and it’s actually a really fun set. It’s too bad I never got one when they were new!

Side Note: This set was far too large for my usual photo set-up, so this is the first item to be shot in the Auxiliary Photo Studio (aka the dining room). As it turns out, the Auxiliary Photo Studio takes two people to operate, so special thanks goes out to Super Awesome Girlfriend, who aided with most of the photos you see here!

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#1008: Two-Bad

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

TWO-BAD

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

TwoBad1

Okay, so yesterday, I wrote about how important the Evil Warriors are to the whole Masters of the Universe brand. But, up until now, I’ve only actually looked at one member of the Evil Warriors. It’s actually kind of amusing that I haven’t looked at any others just yet, since the Evil Warriors were actually my favorites growing up. Today, I’ll be looking at another member of their number. Well, in a way, I’m actually looking at two of them. Yep, today’s figure is the combined forces of Tuvar and Baddrah, better known as Two-Bad!

THE FIGURE IN QUESTION

TwoBad2Two-Bad was released in the 2003 series of Masters of the Universe, as part of the third assortment of Evil Warriors. The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. The shoulders both have spring loaded features. When pulled upward, the arms will snap back into place. It’s not the best feature, and it can make posing the arms quite difficult. On the plus side, it doesn’t affect the aesthetics of the sculpt. Two-Bad’s design in the 200x line was one of the least changed. It’s really a pretty straightforward recreation of the original figure in the newer style. What this figure’s sculpt does have to offer is a greater difference between the two halves. Baddrah is shorter, squatter, and all-around stockier than Tuvar, and has some very impressive texturing. Tuvar includes much cleaner lines and stands just a tiny bit taller. Even the armor exhibits different stylings depending on which side it lays on. Very high quality sculpt to be sure. The paintwork isn’t quite as strong as the sculpt, but it’s actually awful. The colors are nice and bold, and the two sides each have their own separate color scheme, and they accent each other pretty well. Two-Bad was packed with a double-headed mace (clever, that one) and a shield. The mace accents Tuvar and the shield goes with Baddrah, which is a nice touch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I always wanted a Two-Bad figure when I was collecting these, but I was never fortunate enough to find one at retail. However, Two-Bad ended up being one of the many figures from my recent Goodwill find. I’m happy I’ve got one after all these years, and the figure’s just as cool as I’d hoped! And look at that, I went the entire review without a single awful pun based on his name! Not Two-Bad if I do say so myself!

#1007: Tri-Klops

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

TRI-KLOPS

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

TriKlops200x1

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

TriKlops200x2Tri-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.

#1006: Battle Tank

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BATTLE TANK

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

BattleTank1

Masters of the Universe was one of the pinnacles of ’80s toylines.  It had all the trappings: gimmicky figures, wacky action features, play sets, and, yes, lots of vehicles for the figures to make use of.  The vehicles were a success in the ’80s, so Mattel gave them another try with the 200x relaunch.  They weren’t quite as successful that time around, but they certainly tried.  Today, I’ll be looking at one of those vehicles, the somewhat mediocre Battle Tank.  Let’s have a look at that!

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

BattleTank3The BattleTank was one of the earliest vehicles in the 200x line, released during the line’s first year.  The vehicle measures 9 ¾ inches long and 6 ½ inches tall.  The Battle Tank is somewhat oddly named.  It looks more like some sort of ramming vehicle and less like what I would think of as a tank.  Of course, I suppose that a more conventional tank might look out of place in Masters of the Universe, so there’s that.  Still, I feel like there could have been a more exciting name for this thing.  As far as the actual sculpt goes, I suppose the tank’s not bad.  It’s a bit rudimentary and clunky, but it’s serviceable.  I think the biggest issue I have with it is how it interacts with the BattleTank2figures.  Their limited articulation means that any vehicle meant for them has to do the heavy lifting in terms of helping them sit.  The tank would be difficult for even a Marvel Legend to sit on comfortably.  The MotU figures look rather uncomfortable, and they all have to do this weird sort of lounging lean.  It’s not exactly an imposing look.  The tank has a pop-out feature, which launches the head forward and flips out two little wing things at the sides, which makes it somewhat cooler looking, but also makes it even less tank-like. There’s not really any paint on the tank, but there are a lot of decals which make up for it. They’re kind of basic, but they look okay.  They stay on pretty well, which is the important part with decals.  The Battle Tank was packed with a basic He-Man, who was the same as the standard Series 1 version, which I suppose isn’t a bad thing, but a unique figure might have been a little cooler.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never been much into the MotU vehicles, so I never had any of them.  This one was part of the Goodwill find from a few weeks ago.  I found this last out of the bunch, and I honestly only got it because I felt bad leaving it there by itself.  Island of Misfit toys and all that.  I can’t say it was my favorite piece of the find, but it’s enjoyable enough, and certainly worth what I paid for it.  All in all, not bad.

 

#1005: Sy-Klone

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

SY-KLONE

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2002)

SyClone1

As much as it relied on high-fantasy, sword and sorcery tropes, Masters of the Universe was, at its core, all about the gimmicks. Sure, many of the main characters were a bit more thought-out, but anyone outside of the lead cast was all about what gimmick they possessed. Today’s focus, Sy-Klone, was no exception. No points for guessing what his shtick was…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SyClone2Sy-Klone was released in the 2003 series of Masters of the Universe. The figure is about 6 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation, counting his…back…hoop…thing. The waist movement is tied into his action feature: by using the gear at the back of his belt, his upper torso can be spun. So, there’s that. Sy-Klone’s design wasn’t greatly changed for the 2002 series. The basic look is pretty much the same, with the only real tweaks being to his helmet design. His more generic helmet has been given more of a samurai-style appearance (befitting Sy-Klone’s characterization from the show), which makes him a bit more distinctive. Also, despite Sy-Klone classically having a face that closely resembles He-Man’s, this figure gives Sy-Klone his own unique face. I can’t say I mind, since there’s never been any explanation for the shared look. The rest of the sculpt is very nicely detailed. He’s got lots of fun little technical details, which add a nice extra dimension to the character. Of all the figures in the 200x re-launch, this is the one that most retains the strange squatting pose of the vintage line. It’s still slightly goofy, but it’s not entirely out of place on a character like Sy-Klone, since it works well with the whole spinning bit. Sy-Klone’s paintwork is alright, but not quite as good as it could be. To be fair, what paint’s there is all pretty cleanly done, and I really like the metallic red in particular. The problem with the paint is what isn’t there. He’s got a number of details, especially on the arms and legs, which are simply left unpainted. It’s a little frustrating. On the plus side, the bit in the middle is a cool lenticular piece, just like it was on the vintage figure. It’s a gimmick, but it’s a really cool one. Sy-Klone was packed with a yellow shield, designed to match him in theme.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never had much affinity for Sy-Klone. His vintage figure has never appealed to me (and, by extension, his MOTUC figure also has no appeal), mostly because I just find his overall design rather on the clunky side. However, the 200x version did a lot to remove some of that clunkiness, which increases the appeal. Sy-Klone ended up being another figure from the Goodwill find of a few weeks ago. He’s not a bad figure at all, and I’m glad to have him.