Rant Review: Masters of the Universe Origins Eternian Goddess figure

One of my earliest memories is looking at the very first MOTU minicomic, He-Man and the Power Sword, in the car on our way home from TG&Y, or possibly Howard's. (I'm not 100% sure which it was, as we frequented both stores in my youngest days.) I had just gotten the last figure the store had, He-Man himself, from the new MOTU line. As I looked at the art in the included storybook, I fixated on this image.

The green woman in the snake armor seemed infinitely cool and mysterious to me, and I wondered when there would be a toy of her. As it turned out, I only had to wait a few decades, as the Classics line delivered one in its first full year, though that figure was sadly compromised by production issues. And now, more than a decade after that, we have one in the style of the vintage toys in the Origins line! Now renamed the Eternian Goddess, she serves as the sole heroic character in wave six. Is she good enough to hold the line on her own, or is this figure saddled with its own equivalent of ECS*? Read on...

It's been awhile since I gushed about the packaging art for this line, as its consistent awesomeness can just be assumed at this point, but this figure features such excellent cardback art that it stands out even in this line! Axel Gimenez has channeled his inner Alcala, delivering a piece of art homaging the climactic scene from He-Man and the Power Sword! Check it out:

The figure's sculpt, unsurprisingly, is 100% reuse from Teela. I would have liked to see a new head here, as the original plan for the Goddess/Sorceress back in the day called for that, but Mattel's gonna Mattel, so what can you do? For those of us who haven't been lucky enough to snag a Teela from the newer production run, there is a vital difference: This figure has the new female knees! These knees look so much better, and correct THE major flaw that female figures in this line suffered from. We have presumably seen the last of the original knees, and that is a very good thing! I'm also glad that the figure is not molded in translucent plastic, as the Classics figure was. While the translucent look was cool, it didn't really make any sense, and I'm glad they went with a simple light green skin tone instead.

The paint apps in this wave seem to be much sloppier overall than previous waves, and that's no different here, unfortunately. There's a general slop and overspray in numerous areas of the figure, with the "belt" and furry parts of the boots as the worst offenders. The fur suffers from overspray, lack of full coverage, and such a thin coat of paint that the underlying red bleeds through in multiple areas. The face is very neat, at least, though that hardly makes up for the relative horror show the rest of the paint apps are. 

The Goddess has the line's standard articulation, with swivel & hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, swivels at the waist and calves, and a ball-jointed head. As ever, this is a very good articulation model that is lots of fun to play around with, and the parts pop apart at the usual spots for easy swapping, though I recommend heating the elbows, hips, knees, and ankles before popping them apart. My figure's right arm refuses to stay in its socket, and tends to fall out whenever you touch it, look at it, breathe near it, or think about it too hard. There's nothing visibly different about it, so I'm not sure what the problem is. The Goddess shares the same trio of accessories that we've seen with Teela, and they all function the same. The shield still has a tendency to fall out of the figure's hands, and the addition of a clip for the forearm would have been most welcome. It would have been nice to get the spear so we could give it to Teela in exchange for her snake staff, but again, Mattel doesn't tend to give us something new if they can avoid it. 

Despite being a 100% recolor of a previously released figure, the Goddess has been a highly anticipated figure for many collectors, myself included. There are a couple of alterations I'd have liked to see, but the figure does work as a simple recolor, and I'm glad to have her in the collection. And hey, no ECS*, so that's always a plus! Unfortunately, the paint apps are among the worst I've seen in the entire line, and on a figure that was so cheap for Mattel to produce, seeing them cut corners so obviously really rankles. Whenever costs are cut on action figures, the quality and quantity of paint apps are the first thing to suffer, and we're really seeing that in action here. I can fix these issues, but the fact is, I shouldn't have to. I still recommend picking up this figure, but just be aware that you'll likely have to either live with sloppy paint apps, or take the time to correct them. Once again, Mattel's cheapness has marred a figure I otherwise really like, and that's becoming a very disturbing trend with this line. That's all for today, but head back over next week for more! Until then, stay safe out there, and happy hunting!

*Exploding Crotch Syndrome, of course!

Rant Review: Masterverse Spikor figure (MOTU Revelation series)

The second half of the animated Masters of the Universe Revelation series is still over a month away, but wave two of the tie-in Masterverse line is already beginning to pop up! Thanks to Amazon, I managed to snag my first figure from this wave, Spikor! There's been some grumbling about his appaearance in the line, since he technically doesn't actually appear on the show. It's admittedly a somewhat odd inclusion, especially so early in the line's life, but he's a fan-favorite character with an interesting design, so I can definitely see the reasoning behind having him as part of the line in spiteof that. 

The sculpt shares many parts with He-Man, which should come as no surprise. The head and bracers are new, of course, and the spiky torso is achieved with armor rather than a new torso, a method previously employed with the MOTU Classics version of the character. The bracers are glued in place, which will be annoying to some, but at least it prevents them from sliding off when you're swapping the hands around. (The glue can be removed with a bit of trouble, of course, if one is so inclined.) The head has a great sour expression, similar to the grouchy "I just got up, where's my damn coffee?" expression on his Classics counterpart. The spikes are a bit sharper than I expected, but unlike the Super 7 Filmation Spikor, you couldn't use him to impale your enemies or anything like that. The armor compares favorably with the briefly-seen animated design, though asa result, it features the fewest spikes on any Spikor figure to date. As with He-Man, there's a total lack of texture sculpting on the armor, and while that matches the animated source for this design, there's enough added detail on other parts of the figure that its lack here seems incongruous. With a much greater level of detail on some parts than others, it seems at times that this line's designers don't know exactly what they want it to be. 

Spikor has far fewer paint apps than many of the other figures in this line, almost to the level of simplicity we typically see with the Origins line. What's here is applied neatly, however, including tricky apps such as the yellow eyes and fangs over the dark purple face, with no bleed through of the base color at all. There's a nice metallic dark pink/light purple on the light pink belt's inlay, providing some nice contrast with the largely dark color scheme of the figure. The light grayish-blue matches up pretty well on the armor and bracers, despite the bracers being molded in that color, while those areas of the armor are painted. There's a bit of slop around the fangs, but nothing too bad for a mass-produced toy. 

The articulation for this line continues to be one of its strong points. Spikor  has swivel & hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles, double elbows and knees, swivels at the boot tops, thighs, waist, and biceps, and a ball-jointed head and torso. The torso's range of motion is restricted quite a lot by the armor, but works normally when it is removed. The hips have the same slotted bar design as the male wave one figures, but it works much more smoothly here. I've put the figure in a variety of poses with the legs splayed out every which way, but I haven't run into any of the issues with the bar getting stuck that I ran into with some of the earlier figures. (Mostly He-Man.) I'd like to see the design team continue to tweak the articulation model here and there, as it's close to Marvel Legends level, the gold standard for mass-produced collector lines. A bit more work, and Masterverse can get there!

Spikor has a nice collection of accessories, as we've come to expect from this line. The thagomizer, pitchfork attachment, a pair of swappable hands, and the aforementioned armor offer a good variety of display options. The pichfork weapon is different from previous iterations, matching its appearance in Revelation. It has some nice sculpted details than have been left unpainted. It can be attached onto either wrist, or eschewed altogether if you want to display him with two hands. The thagomizer has a nice metallic finish, making its bright orange stand out even more on the shelf. The plastic used for it is a bit soft, and mine has already begun to wilt a bit after Spikor was posed waving it over his head for a few days. The armor attaches at the bottom on both sides, and slips on and off easily. 

Though a mildly controversial inclusion so early in the Masterverse line, Spikor is a very solid figure. I consider him a few tweaks away from perfection, as I would like more spikes on his armor, more paint apps, and some more detail in the sculpting, but those are really minor issues. As some of them arise from the figure's adherence to the animated source design, I can hardly fault the figure for that! Spikor is another worthy entry in the Masterverse line, and I'm happy to see a relatively minor character appear so early on. For those who don't have the Classics Spikor, this figure holds even more appeal as a much cheaper alternative! The design sensibility is close enough that he will fit into a Classics display just fine. This is another strong entry in a line I'm enjoying quite a bit, and after the Power Con reveals, I'm even more excited for this line's future! That's it for today, but bash your way back here Friday for the next review! Until then, stay safe out there, and happy hunting!

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe Origins Beast Man figure (Lords of Power)

As we saw a few months ago with Mer-Man, Mattel has released a recolored version of one of the figures from it's hideously expensive 2020 Power Con exclusive set at retail, to the consternation of some, and the delight of many. Personally, I applaud this decision, as it makes a very cool character variation available to a far larger number of people, and the new colors sufficiently distinguish it from the con exclusive. As with that Mer-Man figure, this version of Beast Man is based on the prototype of the figure from the pre-release period when the MOTU line was operating under the Lords of Power name. (For more information, check out the article on the always awesome Battle Ram blog!)

The sculpt shares most of its parts with the wave one Beast Man, unsurprisingly. These furry beast parts work well enough, and also serve to tether this version of the character to the standard version more strongly than all-new parts would. (Not that we were ever gonna get 100% new tooling here, of course, but the point still stands.) I don't think the head captures the look of the prototype as well as Mer-Man's did, but it's pretty close, and it definitely looks good regardless of any minor deviation from the source material. The new forearms work well with the existing pieces, and the spikes that protrude over the hands make for an interesting visual. Unfortunately, those damn smooth feet that look like baby booties were used again, when this figure really needed newly sculpted feet. I've never liked those smooth, featureless feet, yet they keep popping up when damn near anything else would be preferable. Given that Mattel has now sold this figure twice, and that they have at least one upcoming figure that could make use of new multi-toed beast feet, they really should have tooled a new, more appropriate pair here. Once again, Mattel's cheapness holds a figure back from reaching its full potential.

As I've mentioned in my other wave six reviews, paint apps seem much sloppier in this wave, and poor Beasty doesn't escape unscathed, either. The paint apps on the armor are neat with nice, crisp lines, but the head has its share of issues. The light yellow used for the teeth bleeds all onto the black area in the interior of the mouth, but that's not the worst of it. My figure had a big blob of bright orange paint that had been plopped right onto his left eye. There's no orange anywhere on this figure, so Grodd only knows where it came from! I scraped most of it off without much trouble, though I hadn't finished cleaning it off yet when I took the review photos, so traces remain. As for the figure's overall color scheme, the designers went with a dark red for the fur, similar to that seen on one of the character's B-sheet designs. Beast Man has the line's standard articulation, with swivel & hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, swivels at the waist and calves, and a ball-jointed head. As ever, this is a very good articulation model that is lots of fun to play around with, and the parts pop apart at the usual spots for easy swapping, though I recommend heating the elbows, hips, knees, and ankles before popping them apart. My figure's left ankle has a limited range of motion due to a bunch of excess plastic that is wedged into the joint! It'll be easy to trim it off, but there's no way this should have made it past QC!

Beast Man's only accessories are his armor set, but what an armor set it is! There's a big belt, possibly commemorating Beast Man's victory to become world champion of Eternia's jungles, and the large body armor. This piece, with its massive pauldrons and big, curved horns, has a fantastic design, and it does much to make the figure an intimidating presence on the shelf. It would have been nice to get some paint apps here, or even a wash to bring out all the sculpted details, but we all know by now that Origins isn't the line where things like that happen! While the prototype upon which this figure is based wasn't shown with any weapons, it wouldn't have killed them to at least toss in the standard Beast Man whip. 

Despite this figure's shortcomings, it's a very cool addition to the line, and exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to get when the Origins line was announced. I can see many collectors grabbing multiple of this figure to serve as henchman for the standard Beast Man, something I'm tempted to do myself, money and space allowing! It's just a shame that, once again, Mattel's relentless chintziness has held a figure back from being everything it could be. None of the issues I pointed out ruin the figure, but they do take what could have been a fantastic figure, and make it just a pretty cool one. This is still a figure I like quite a bit, so by all means, grab one if you have the chance. Just be aware that there are a few potential problems that may bug you. Of course, we always need to keep in mind that if you give one of these to a kid, though, they won't notice any of that stuff, and will have a blast playing with it! 

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe Origins Stinkor figure

Wave six of Mattel's Masters of the Universe Origins line is popping up across the country, though not in my city, as usual. Thankfully, BBTS has me covered, as the set I had on pre-order with them showed up at my house a couple of days ago. My reviews of that set kick off today with a look at one of the most beloved and infamous figures in all of MOTU, the smelly scoundrel himself, Stinkor! I'll tell you the bad news right off the bat: Stinkor doesn't stink, despite the packages claims to the contrary. Stinkor's package is the only one lacking the little vent at the bottom of the bubble, presumably to prevent the figure's patchouli-infused aroma from escaping, but this was an unnecessary precaution. The figure simply doesn't have his signature smell, and from comments I've seen across the web, none of them do. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but it's a shame this figure's key feature is missing. With that unfortunate bit of business out of the way, let's move on...

The sculpt is no surprise for anyone familiar with the character's past plastic incarnations, as he is a recolor of Mer-Man. As ever, the Mer-Man head sculpt is oddly far more appropriate for this furry fiend than for the scaly undersea warlord, though the smooth body and limbs are a bit incongruous. The Classics version of the figure went with the furry body that was originally planned for the figure during the prototype stage, but as Origins nearly always draws inspiration from the vintage toys, the route the designers took here is no surprise. The sculpt works as well for the character as it did in the vintage line's days, and fans of the character will not be disappointed. 

Stinkor traditionally has some of the trickier paint apps in the MOTU range, as the white and red on top of black is notoriously difficult for toy manufacturers to get right. Mattel has applied thick enough coats of white and red to avoid the black bleeding through for the most part, though bleed through is evident in some areas. The right arm on my figure has coats of white paint of varying thickness, and the bleed through is at its worst here. The cut lines are nice and crisp, though the red of the gloves doesn't exactly line up with the sculpted points of the gloves. This detail doesn't really bother me, but your mileage may vary. There's a major color mismatch between the painted red gloves on the forearms and the molded red hands, and that's a much bigger issue. The mismatch looks awful, and once noticed, you can't un-see it. The figure's head has more issues. Mine has a random bit of white paint on one lip, but this is thankfully hidden by the armor in most poses. The eyes are fairly sloppy, with wavy, unclear lines around the rims. The ribbed area around the eyes has not been painted fully, with only a thin white strip around the outer perimeter. This doesn't look inherently bad, but if you're familiar with how Stinkor figures normally look, including the vintage figure from which this one draws its inspiration, it's something you're bound to notice. I was particularly annoyed to see that the white stripe down his back only goes down to the top of the figure's armor! Every prior Stinkor figure has had a white stripe that went most of the way down the figure's back, and this is a distinctive feature of the character and skunks in general. This move reeks of cheapness even beyond Mattel's general M.O. of cost-cutting. None of these paint issues ruin the figure, but they do compromise its look significantly. 

Stinkor sports the articulation model we've become accustomed to with this line, with swivel & hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, swivels at the waist and calves, and a ball-jointed head. As ever, this is a very good articulation model that is lots of fun to play around with, and the parts pop apart at the usual spots for easy swapping, though I recommend heating the elbows, hips, knees, and ankles before popping them apart. Stinkor has his standard pair of accessories, his armor and shield. Both of these parts are traditionally reused, but we're seeing them for the first time in the Origins line. Stinkor's armor is a "pre-use" of Mekaneck's, and his shield is a blue version of the Castle Grayskull weapons rack shield. It was MIA in this line's version of Grayskull, however. It would have been nice to have the tanks that were added to the character's design in the 2002 days as an option here, but let's face it, that was never going to happen in this line. Armor and a shield aren't hugely impressive accessories, but at least both are new to the line, and Stinkor's main weapon is his stench, so he doesn't really have much need for a physical weapon, anyway. This wave's minicomic is also included, and while it's a nice bonus, it seems more than ever that these are simply dashed off  quickly, with little care. Still, I do love the fact that they're included, and I'm sure any kids who may get any of these figures will enjoy them more than the average adult collector! 

It may seem from this review that I dislike this figure, but that's really not the case. I actually like it quite a bit, it's just a shame that Mattel's cost-cutting has unnecessarily compromised its look. I'm not sure what happened with the figure's signature smell, as we were assured that it would be present, and the package even insists that the figure stinks. There may have been a mistake during the production run, or maybe the scent was applied and it simply wore off by the time it reached our shores. Whatever the case, it really sucks that the figure's main feature is simply not present. Stinkor is popular enough that the figure is sure to be a strong seller regardless, and I'm happy to have him in the Origins line. I just wish he wasn't a shadow of what he could, and should, have been. With a price increase incoming, Mattel really needs to be stepping up their game to justify the higher price, rather than doubling down on the cost-cutting. That's it for today, but swing back by next Friday for the next Origins review! Until then, stay safe out there, and happy hunting!