Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Mark of the Sword 100 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by R.L. Allen, 1983)

I've slowed down a bit on my vintage MOTU puzzles, as I'm down to my last few, but I felt the itch to do one after polishing off that Dowdle much more quickly than expected last night. The scene depicted is a bit of a nail-biter, with He-Man struggling to wrench his half of the Sword of Grayskull free as Mer-Man and Trap Jaw close in. Stratos knocks Skeletor's half of the sword from his grasp, as the skull-faced fiend was undoubtedly about to unleash an energy blast on his nemesis. Too bad he didn't bring his Havoc Staff, too! The scene is evocative of the early MOTU lore that pre-dated the Filmation animated show, as those early stories often focused on Skeletor's quest to unite both halves of the Sword of Power, which had been hidden from him, so he could enter Castle Grayskull and gain access to the power of the ancients, which would enable him to enslave the universe. 

This is another piece from the underrated R.L. Allen, who provided quite a bit of MOTU art for licensed products during its early years. Much early MOTU art based the looks of the characters on prototype designs, but Allen's renderings here are entirely faithful to the toys, right down to the "surprise prostate exam" expression on Mer-Man's face. Another nod to the early MOTU lore is Stratos' ability to unleash an energy blast, something various characters did at different times in the first few minicomics. The dramatic scene and use of colors makes for a visually interesting puzzle, and it's fun to imagine the adventure that led to this point. However, with Skeletor disarmed and He-Man wielding half of the sword, it doesn't require much brain power to imagine the ass-beatings that are about to be doled out! The pieces are thin, but fairly sturdy, and nice and large to make them easy for small hands to manage. The fit is loose enough that there's no chance of being able to move sections greater than two or three pieces without them crumbling, but there were no issues with false fits. 

Rant Review: Mondo 2002/200x Skeletor Figure Timed Edition

I wasn't expecting this until next month, but you won't hear me complaining! Much of my stuff is packed up and I don't currently have a good photo setup since I'm moving soon, but I took some quick and dirty pics, including some comparisons with what I have handy, of the Mondo 2002 Skeletor timed edition.  There's a special guest star if you make it to the end. 😉

 

Some initial thoughts: The figure and the accessories feel great, very high-quality. Everything has its own wrapping within the packaging, so it's well-protected. The articulation is great, and joints move well and hold poses. The chest is a soft, rubbery material that aids with posing, but I'm a bit worried about how it will hold up over time. If the chest on this thing is cracking and splitting in a year or two, Mondo will have some very displeased customers to deal with. The cloak is very well-made and the wires aid greatly in posing, but I don't know if I'll be using it most of the time. I'll have to work to find display poses that don't have the cloak covering too much of the figure.

 

The skull plates lock firmly into position within the hood, though I wish a pry tool or something was included to aid with removing them, as I always feel as if I might be on the verge of breaking something. And maybe it's just my big meaty hands, but plugging the straps into the back of the chest armor is very finicky, easily the only thing about the figure (other than the price) that has truly annoyed me. The hold seems firm, though, and I don't expect it to be unfastening on its own.

 

This is the only time I've sprung for one of Mondo's very pricey figures, and likely the only time I will, but the level of quality here doesn't have me regretting my purchase. I've waited for a high-quality figure of this design for 24 years, and I finally have it! My sole complaint is that they didn't include a skull plate that actually looks like the 2002 toy! That seems like a huge oversight. This figure is awesome, though, and I'm damn glad I sucked it up and paid for the timed edition. Keep scrolling for plenty more photos!

 

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Skeletor 1,000 (-1) Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Mondo, Art by Florian Bertmer)

This puzzle was released by Mondo several years ago alongside their 1/6 scale Skeletor figure and features the art used on the figure's packaging. I was interested in it, but like everything Mondo produces, it was overpriced, so I figured I'd wait and see if I saw one at a significant discount. That day turned out to be last week, when I came across a new copy of it for around $17 shipped. The box has a nice matte texture, with bold colors that pop nicely against the black background. The art is quite nice, using the design of Mondo's figure, with a skull design based closely on the iconic rendering of the Lord of Destruction by legendary artist Alfredo Alcala. 

This puzzle was much more difficult than I expected. After the edges were done, I began working on Skeletor's head and the ram skull atop the Havoc Staff, both of which went together quickly. From there, I did the purple sky, then the smoke, then the ground and Skeletor's body, saving the awful expanse of purple for last. Each area was significantly tougher than the preceding ones. Neither the cross-hatching in the art nor the gradient in the purple area helped as much as I expected. It's not a crazy photomosaic level of difficulty, but it took a fair bit longer to complete than I expected when I started it.

As I worked on that final purple section, it had become clear that I was missing a piece. I've only had missing pieces with new puzzles twice before, and both of those were bargain puzzles I got for around $5. For what Mondo charged for this, I was pretty surprised at such lax quality control. The pieces are paper-backed, have a very glossy finish, and multiple pieces had minor damage simply from being jostled around within the sealed box. The fit was so loose that simply moving the board would make some of them begin separating. This is one of the loosest-fitting puzzles I've ever done! Needless to say, I won't be keeping an eye out for a similar deal on the He-Man puzzle they released alongside this one. I feel bad for anyone who paid full price for one of these! All that said, I do like the art, and I'll probably tape the back of this so I can frame & hang it on my Skeletor wall once I move.

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Eternian Battlefield 108 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by R. L. Allen, 1983)

I haven't had much time to devote to puzzling these past few weeks, but I had to get in one of my vintage MOTU puzzles today for MOTU movie day! I'll be seeing the movie in a couple of hours, and this is just the thing to help me get in the proper mood. (Even more than I already am, that is!) Like Surprise Attack, the art is by R.A. Allen, whose art was prolific in early MOTU merchandise. This battle scene features some of the wave two figures in Ram Man and Tri-Klops, yet is rooted in the early MOTU lore. Signs of this are He-Man swinging his battle axe while Skeletor wields the Power Sword, and Battle Cat depicted without his signature helmet. These were things that quickly faded away once the Filmation cartoon became the dominant version of MOTU in pop culture. At that point, the "Power Sword split into two halves" concept was tossed into the bin, and Battle Cat without his helmet was just Cringer. As a little kid who enjoyed the cartoon but did not see it as the "real" MOTU, I always played with and displayed my Battle Cat without his helmet because I thought the angry tiger face underneath it was too cool to cover up! 

Zoar and the rarely-seen Screeech battle it out in the sky. Like Battle Cat, Zoar was a recolored version of an animal toy from Mattel's Big Jim toyline, and like Panthor, Screeech was a recolor of a recolor. Screeech rarely appeared in any MOTU media, and is overlooked whenever the MOTU characters appear. He's also the only character in this puzzle who doesn't appear in the movie. Poor Screeech still gets no respect! There was a storybook in the '80s that depicted Screeech as an alternate form for Evil-Lyn, as Zoar was for the Sorceress in the Filmation cartoon. Perhaps if that concept had caught on, the evil battle bird might not have been perpetually overlooked. 

The pieces are the same thin cardboard as the other vintage MOTU puzzles I've acquired recently, and have a large size that is presumably easy to handle with small hands. (I have big meaty clumsy man hands, so I'm unable to confirm that.) I always like it when the price sticker is still on the box; this time around, it's from Eckerd. With that, I'm off to get ready for the movie! Pretty much everyone I know has made it clear that they're waiting for my review, so I'll have that done either this evening or sometime tomorrow!

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Free for All 100 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by Fred Carillo, 1985)

This is the last of my vintage MOTU puzzles, for now, at least. In another Fred Carillo-illustrated scene, we have a battle between He-Man and Faker, while Man-at-Arms takes on Whiplash. I have no idea why Whiplash's head looks like a deformed aardvark. Skeletor lingers in the back and blasts a large stalactite to make it fall on his hated foe, as befits the dirtiest player in the game. Meanwhile, Mer-Man helps by chilling in a pool of water and watching with obvious glee. I assume he's delighted at the prospect of stabbing and/or pulling under anyone who slips and falls into the water, but you never know with that guy! Really, zoom in and look at his face. He is bursting with joy at watching these muscled-up weirdos beat the hell out of each other! I reckon Mer-Man lives by the adage, "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life!" Carillo not drawing any teeth in the lower half of his mouth gives him this dopey look that cracks me up every time I look at him. 

He-Man is again depicted in his Battle Armor, while Skeletor is still in his standard gear, just like in my last vintage MOTU puzzle. The Battle Armor figures were being pushed hard at the time, largely supplanting the standard versions in most package art and merchandise, so it's interesting that Skeletor was consistently not wearing his in these puzzles. 

Faker was a pretty mysterious character who rarely appeared in any media, so it's cool to see him here. I don't remember ever seeing him in any store, and none of my friends had him. Mine came from a garage sale, and had some flecks of silver paint along one side where someone had apparently been using spray paint or an airbrush near him at some point. I pretended it was battle damage, and it made the toy cooler to me. A robot being as strong as He-Man made no sense to me-- if Skeletor could build a robot that strong, why wouldn't he make a bunch of them and take over Castle Grayskull that way?-- so I reasoned that there had to be something unique about Faker. I enacted a scenario with my toys where Tri-Klops wounded He-Man in battle, returning to Snake Mountain with the hero's blood on his blade. Skeletor removed the blood and performed some arcane ritual to bond it to his Faker, infusing the mechanical menace with some of He-Man's power. This made him a serious threat, worthy of his package art, in which He-Man was forced to wait to ambush his evil doppleganger as he relentlessly hunted him. (Cardback scan via the always awesome Battle Ram Blog!)

The puzzle quality is the same as the last one, as expected for an old cheap puzzle like this. The pieces are thin and have a rather loose fit, with a few split pegs here and there. No missing piece this time, though, so that's a plus! The original owner affixed a swanky Ellery Queen subscription sticker to the bottom of the box, a nice bit of bonus nostalgia. I'll hopefully snag more of these soon, but it's tough to find any at a decent price that aren't absolutely trashed, so we'll just have to wait and see!

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Attack by Sea and Air 200 (minus 1!) Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by Fred Carillo, 1985)

Another vintage MOTU puzzle, this one 200-- nope, make that 199 pieces. I judged the missing piece worth it since I got the puzzle dirt cheap. This action scene shows He-Man sideswiping Mer-Man with the Wind Raider while Skeletor, having apparently stormed Point Dread and stolen the Talon Fighter, prepares to take out his bitter enemy as Buzz-Off tries to intervene. Interestingly, He-Man is depicted in his battle armor, while Skeletor remains in his standard garb. Mer-Man is depicted as he appeared in cross-sell art, rather than the actual toy. It was fairly unusual to see this version of him as late as 1985, but it fits with artist Fred Carillo's rendering of the character. Carillo illustrated storybooks and other licensed items for the vintage MOTU line. He also added a dorsal fin to Mer-Man, as seen in this illustration from the Golden storybook The Sword of Skeletor. This was a nice bit of artistic license I appreciated, and it led me to always draw Mer-Man with that fin when I was little. His facial expression here just kills me; he's basically just been run over, and he's like, "Oh well, that's life!"

Like the last of these vintage MOTU puzzles I did, the pieces are thin, and some have a bit of slight warping. This particular puzzle has several pieces with pegs that are splitting apart. I like that the box still has the K-Mart price sticker on it! I should note that the puzzle is untitled, so I made one up that fits with the other titles in the series. 

 

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Surprise Attack 63 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by R.L. Allen, 1983)

Hot off the USPS delivery truck comes this vintage MOTU puzzle from 1983! I'm not sure whether or not this is one I had when I was little; I know the art from my childhood, but I also had this coloring book that used the same art on its cover, so my memories may be from that. The artist is not credited on the box, but I recognize it as the work of R.A. Allen. Allen contributed painted art to a fair few licensed MOTU items, and much of it wound up on puzzles. His painted art is overshadowed by the work of artists such as William George, Earl Norem, and Rudy Obrero, but he contributed solid work that I feel is rather underappreciated by MOTU fandom at large. 

This art has its roots in MOTU as it existed prior to the Filmation cartoon, an era many of us hold near and dear. Signs of this are Teela with blonde hair and wielding her serpent staff, and Skeletor using the power sword, while He-Man is armed only with his axe. These were common elements in MOTU stories before DC Comics and Filmation revamped the lore into what is recognizable to most people to this day. (I'll just add that while I preferred the pre-cartoon version of MOTU, I was always vaguely annoyed by blonde Teela. I preferred her as a redhead!)

The puzzle pieces are thin, and some have a bit of very mild warping. They fit together very loosely, without much interlocking going on.  The pieces are large and easy for small hands to work into place. I have a couple more of these vintage MOTU puzzles on the way, so look for more soon! For now, enjoy a bonus image from that old coloring book, showing my childhood self's solution to not having enough non-white characters in MOTU! 

 

 

Rant Review: Snake Mountain Family Portrait 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (PuzzleYou, Art by Esteban Maroto)

I had this puzzle custom-made by PuzzleYou a few months ago after doing a bit of research and seeing a good deal of praise for them. I can say that they've lived up to that, as this puzzle's quality is quite good. The feel of the pieces and overall quality are comparable to Ravensburger, though with a bit less dust, and a slightly tighter fit. Some of my earliest memories involve Masters of the Universe, as regular TMR readers know; I have hazy memories of sitting in the buggy in a store and looking at He-Man in that iconic exploding red rocks packaging, then opening it in the car on the way home and marveling at the Alfredo Alcala art in the included minicomic. I don't remember exactly when I first saw this piece of art by Esteban Maroto, but the image has lived in my mind for decades as one of the most iconic pieces of MOTU art. I wanted to get it as a 1,000 piece puzzle, but the image simply wasn't high-resolution enough for that. It was a fun completion, though some of the background elements were enough of a challenge that I'm now a bit relieved that it's only 500 pieces! I doubt I'll be ordering another custom puzzle anytime soon because it costs a good deal more than I like to spend on a single puzzle, but that aside, I wouldn't hesitate to use PuzzleYou's services again. I'm very satisfied with the experience!

Rant Review: Masters of the Universe Origins Webstor figure

The villain-heavy wave six of Mattel's MOTU Origins line continues its rollout, and we're back to look at another member of Skeletor's crew of cretinous creeps, Webstor! This spider-themed villain-- or as spider-themed as you can get when you're only allowed tooling for a new head, anyway-- debuted in the vintage line's 1984 lineup, and quickly became a fan-favorite. His cool action feature, distinctive midnight blue hue, and decidedly un-spider-like, yet still likeably creepy and monstrous, head sculpt was instantly appealing to the hordes of little boys who made up a large portion of MOTU's fanbase. Like his wave-mate Stinkor, he was sadly absent in the 2002 MOTU line, so we never got a figure of that supremely awesome redesign, but this Origins version aims to recapture the magic of his vintage figure. How does it stack up? Read on...

As is the norm, this is a reused body with a newly-tooled head. It's Skeletor from the neck down, with the same sharply-sculpted details and appealingly exaggerated proportions. The head is excellent, capturing the monstrous head we're familiar with while amplifying such details as the ridges on the sides of his head, and the horns that run down its center. There area pair of tiny indentations, one on either side of the second central "horn," that haven't appeared on any previous Webstor figure. I'm not sure what their purpose is, or if they're intentional. They don't detract from the figure's appearance, in any case. 

Webstor has very few paint apps, but what's here has been applied pretty neatly. The red belt has no slop or overspray at all, and has been applied thickly enough that the underlying black doesn't bleed through. The orange and red on the chest armor are similarly flawless. Things get a bit less ideal on the figure's head, though the issue is lack of coverage, rather than slop. The two large red eyes are fine, but the two tiny eyes and the fangs don't fully cover the sculpted features. Still, they are very neat, and you have to be looking pretty closely to notice the lack of full coverage. It's not ideal, but not a major problem. Webstor 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. 

Webstor's accessories are updated versions of the vintage toy's, as we expect from the Origins line at this point. The rifle is a recolored version of the one we got with Castle Grayskull, appearing here in an eye-catching bright orange. His armor, the only top & bottom-clipped clamshell armor we've gotten in this line so far, is attached to the backpack that contains his signature action feature. Clip the grappling hook onto something, then pull the tab on the other end of the string, and the backpack's interior mechanism propels the figure up the line! It doesn't work as smoothly as the vintage toy's did-- toy companies' inability to properly replicate action features they nailed decades ago is basically a running joke at this point-- but it works well enough to be a fun play feature, even with its occasional hitches and snags. The hook is made from stiff enough plastic that it has no problem staying place without warping. (Anyone who tried to pose their Classics Webstor suspended by his hook will know how frustrating a hook made from pliable plastic can be!) With action features mostly relegated to the higher-priced deluxe line, it's great to see such a thing included on a basic figure! The backpack also has a pair of little hooks, one on each side, to aid in wrapping the string up when it's not in use.

As a fan-favorite villain with a great eye-catching design, Webstor is sure to be a popular figure. After the various issues that plagued his wave-mates, I'm happy to see that this fella suffers from no such problems, and even has a cool action feature, to boot! In a wave with a strong lineup, Webstor might be the best figure of the bunch, so don't sleep on this one! That's it for today, but creep on back next Friday for the next review. Until then, stay safe out there, and happy hunting! 

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!