Review 3A’s Darwin Rothchild Father and Son Two Pack

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

In Ashley Wood’s World War Robot, Rothchild is the evil/indifferent/ingenious inventor who individually from very little created all the various warring robot factions. He sells to the top bidder, North or South, Earth or Space with complete ambivalence. He also supposedly thinks of his creations as his own children. In fact, on the box for the Father Son Two pack it reads that he “looks upon 003 as a father does his child.” A man’s love for his murderous giant robot, truly heart warming stuff.

The idea behind this pack was pretty awesome. You get the creator.. nay, stirrer-upper of trouble that is Roth as well as his sleek assassin/bodygaurd, the shiny red 003. My anticipation for this set was rivaled only by the Blind Cowboy/Ghost Horse Super Set I received earlier this year. (See review here) I knew from the day I placed the order that Rothchild and 003 would be very clean and in stark contrast to the usual grit 3A dry rubs their stuff in. I was ready for it. In fact, believed it to be a boon for my collection in the way they’d stand out on the shelf. The Caesar release was the first from 3A’s new LUX line which was to be essentially their premium product. I read that to mean, “it doesn’t get any better than this so hold onto your butts.”

Therein lies my confliction with the set and in fact the underlining for this entire review. How can something meant to be so pristine and so polished, feel so freaking sloppy?

PACKAGING

The 2 pack arrives in a sturdy, large brown box as is most often the case when 3A makes a house call. The box art itself is minimalistic front and back. It features contrasty red and white with various logos sprinkled about. It’s primarily a focus on basic form and negative space. Ergo, not a lot to see here.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

So you managed to wrestle your set free! Congrats! The big red bloke 003 has two sheathed (and sick looking) blades as well as holstered twin pistols. Darwin comes with a swap of hands and a tiny “wood” bertie. Also included is a catalog of sorts, showing offall the 3A toys you missed out on over the past year or so.

THE BREAKDOWN

My Grandma had a weird saying, “there’s those who dig graves and those who wouldn’t be caught dead doing such.” I think it was meant to be a funny way of looking at people who work hard and people who don’t… or it was just Grandma being morbid. Well, straight out of the box, Rothy looks like someone who wouldn’t be caught dead doing such. Super clean head to toe. Not a spec of 3A grime or gristle on him. Right after the Rothchild drop, 3A teased a few pics of a couple of Roth variants, an all black version and a dirtied up version that look like he’d been changing the oil on an old bronco. I know I said I was ready for clean.. but I can’t help but wish dirty mechanic Roth was a regular release as well.. I digress.

Rothchild has an interesting head sculpt. It’s extremely simple and expressionless. My first reaction to the teaser shots could be summed up with a massive “meh”. However, now that I actually have him in hand, I actually really like the sculpt. It works really well for the character. His youthful, blank stare somehow screams a dark ambition.. or perhaps contemplative resolve. He could just as well be saying, “you did well today my son.” or “I’m afraid I have to end you.” Maybe that’s why it works. It leaves a lot up to your interpretation in ways a sculpted smile, frown, smirk etc type of expression would not.

The hands Rothchild comes with are all slight variations of each other. One wider than the rest to easily hold the wooden Bertie and one in a sort of, arthritic, knuckled position which reminds me of Tommy Mission’s ham fists. The problem I have with the hands is they all look a little on the cheap side. Maybe it’s the total lack of weathering or paint detail but they look like they were simply cast and tossed in the box to ship. It’s odd because the hands ARE painted. Someone actually took the time to dip them or run a brush over them but there’s no details (fingernails, etc) at all. The sculpts are actually really cool, but in the end it comes across flat without different tones or highlights to set them off. Also, all of the hands in my set have very VERY visible seams which heavily contributed to their over all cheap-ish appearance. I did like that they’re made of a softer material than previous 3A figures have been equipped with. This is cool for fitting things into his hands with little effort, like a the wee Bertie or maybe even a weapon of some sort.

Speaking of the wee Bertie, it’s painted a sort of faux wood color. It does the job but is an obvious no frills effort at realism. Still, mini Berties are cool. It is known.

Roth has some Hot Topic-esque goth rubber boots that look kinda cool, if only from a distance. This was the one detail that I was the most interested in from the teaser pics. As it turns out, I found them sadly lacking. On one hand, due to the large sole of the shoes, you should have no problem getting Darwin to balance upright. On the other hand, thanks to the rubbery like material of them, they will not allow for any sustained ankle or foot articulation. Want to bend Roth’s foot up or down? Not a problem. Want it to stay there? Not going to happen. The ankle peg just isn’t stiff enough to resist the rubber of the boots. It’s odd, because even with Blind Cowboy and his incredibly hard boots I can get his ankles to bend and stay. I chalk it up to the nature of the rubbery material which is somehow neither soft nor hard enough to work.

Now we come to Rothchild’s wardrobe. This is where all my frustrations with this figure start to come to a boil. Roth features the newish 3A slim body which I’m a pretty big fan of. His clothes are sewn to be more fitted and “neat”, so therefore are more snug than most of 3A’s previous offerings. Ah.. frustration. Where to begin? The pants are nicely tailored but at the waist they sort of “U”up which gives him the look of someone who was on the unfortunate losing end of an all day brutal bout of Team Sport Wedgie. There is also no fastener of any kind where one’s zipper should normally be. Any sitting position you put Roth in parts the crotch of his pants wide open which neatly displays his Ken doll like goodies in true Basic Instinct fashion. It’s a strange omission considering the peeps in charge obviously have ample amounts of sturdy Velcro strips laying around.

Don’t get me started about the belt. I think I’ve seen a better looking accessory included with Beach Barbie. No seriously, her beach ball was super realistic! Well done Mattel, full marks! Anyway, the belt looks cheap, like a spare strip of pleather that was cut by a 10 year old. (Hmmm, these are made in China right?) The belt buckle isn’t doing much to help either. Overall, the whole get up is very cheap looking.

It’s Roth’s shirt that is the true bane of my toy collecting existence. Once again 3A decided to use a solid, wide, stiff strip of velcro, running chin to groin as the primary way of keeping his “button up” shut. As was the case with Blind Cowboy, this causes his shirt to bunch up in the front and sit stiffly. It’s impossible to get it to rest naturally. While BC shared this flaw in design, his shirt was at least loose and forgiving making it fairly easy to adjust with some determination. Rothchild’s shirt is form fitted to his slim body. There is no wiggle room here and no way to work around it. What you see is what you get.

On the plus side, the sleeves are fitted really nicely, giving you all the room you need to move his arms around. Unfortunately they’re buttoned (sewn) shut so there’s not a good way to roll them up if you felt so inclined.

Personal mileage may vary but in my case, just look at that mess of a tie. Crinkled, creased, and stuck in some degree of wind blown. The easiest thing for me to do would be to untie it, gently iron it and retie it. I’d do that, but 3A super glued the tie to his collar which has forced me to hunt down a tiny iron. The search continues.

We’ve talked about how Roth looks and dresses, but how does the man dance? Not too well it turns out. Thanks to the new slim body, Roth has a ton articulation at his disposal, you just can’t really access any of it on account of his unforgiving attire. Not that I expect too many will have him pulling off Van Damme split kicks or the like, but Roth’s cloths bind him up pretty well limiting his motion to about 40% of what it could be. Still, you may be surprised by how much character you can squeeze out of Roth, even when the majority of your poses will come from his arms and a twist of his neck. Anything beyond that is a royal pain.

So now we move on to Rothchild’s looming sidekick, 003. Man, how I wanted to love this guy. I’m a big fan of the clean, shiny Nightwatch colorway with my MK3 Bertie being among the favorites in my collection. Ash dirtied up Nightwatch and Daywatch when the Heavy Bramble versions hit and I lost interest. Then along came 001 and 002 Caesars, two paint jobs that mimicked the clean shiny look of DW and NW of old. While I didn’t pull the trigger on either of them (hindsight, they look amazing). I sprang on 003 believing fully that I’d be dealing with a glossy, beautifully clean, stark RED bot charged with rocking my entire collection with his awesomeness.

Let me start with what I like about 003.

At first glance, 003 is striking. He’s huge, towers over Rothchild and the red absolutely pops! The one armed shield looks awesome on him and all the black painted accents and white decals truly look fantastic. If you don’t like clean bots, he may not do anything for you. For me, I enjoy the variety of mixing the war-torn with the fresh off the factory floor.

The twin pistols and knives 003 look great. The guns have red grips while the knives have a really slick contrast to them. 3A calls the knife a “harmonic blade” and they knocked the design of it out of the park. I wish I could own one in 1:1 scale (Make it happen Ash!). Some will mix and match, but for me the best look is dual anything.

Caesar has some really great articulation. I’m gigantically relieved of this. Up until now, the 1/6 dropcloths have sported the best bot articulation in the business with their ability to move incredibly similar to their 1/6 human counterparts. While not groundbreaking, Caesar does upgrade things in a few areas that makes them a tad more versatile. For one, the range of movement on their shoulders is a good deal broader thanks to a larger double ball joint. Caesar borrows from Popbot and puts a mid foot joint in for some more flexablity.

The last thing I noticed is the thumb joint is on a simple, nice to use ball joint that easily rotates around to whatever angle you please. You can also FINALLY lay the thumb almost completely flat against the palm of his hand. No more perma-thumbs up!

If I was to say one negative thing about “playing” with Caesars, it’d be that they’re a little big. Negative isn’t really the term I’m looking for, but unlike the Dropcloth who ring in just at 12 inches tall, Caesar hits the high notes of 16. The difference is pretty dramatic really. DCs you can grab off the shelf and mess with while leaning back, ‘laxing on the couch. Caesars are just bulky enough that you need something to sit them on to do the same thing comfortably. I think the recently released 1/12 Caesars may hit that sweet spot for 3A and give us something really special toy wise.

Still, given the relatively small amount of articulation limitations Caesars possess, you’ll definitely enjoy posing these guys up.

Aaaaand, that’s it. We’ve reached the end of the positive stuff. On to the gooey bits!

Someone else on one of the many forums I frequent said it best a day before I’d even had a chance to open up my set. I paraphrase, “003 is the first toy I’ve bought from 3A that actually LOOKS like a toy, like plastic.”

There it is in a nut shell. The promise of a glossy, sleek and sexy red killing machine fell just short of sexy, sleek and (mostly) glossy. Let me remind you that I’ve collected the Night Watch colorway for a few years now. I’m used to 3A’s “clean” bots. I want to reassure you that “clean” is a non-issue here. The issue lies in how the red color of 003 reads.

003’s shield, arms, hands, legs and feet are all painted a nice shiny red color. In direct and indirect light, they maintain a dark but bright red hue that’s nice and shiny. However, there is something about 003’s torso and head that just screams “plastic”. At first, I wasn’t even sure if they were painted red or if it was simply exposed red vinyl. Upon further inspection I noticed a few paint drips and tiny paint bumps here and there. I believe the problem lies in the material underneath. Where the arms, legs and shield are all a hard plastic, the torso and head are a softer vinyl. This allows light to penetrate the surface, even with a few coats of paint on it. Working in 3D I liken this to subsurface scattering which has everything to do with the absorption and affect of light to a surface. You can see it best in the wax of a burning candle or when there’s light shining behind someones ears or finger tips. This effect keeps 003’s torso from maintaining the same true rich red the rest of his body has which To my eye, that’s where the illusion of this robot fails.

It’s difficult to photograph, but in hand it’s almost immediately apparent. I’m not sure if I can really blame 3A for this, but I can say that it doesn’t affect the 001/NW or 002/DW colorways. Maybe a better base coat? A few more layers of paint? Perhaps simply a darker, deeper, more crimson red should have been used. I don’t know, but I believe there’s some basic light affect/color theory at work here that should have been tackled on the factory floor before sent out to doorsteps.

The thing is, the oddness with the vinyl-esque look isn’t the part that bothers me the most. Tis his skirt and packs that doth pain me most. In a flat light, florescent bulbed office, the colors all blend fairly seamlessly. The reds hold hands nicely and play hop scotch when no one’s looking. Change the lighting though and wow, that skirt looks ORANGE! Again, difficult to photograph but if you held a red pantone chip up to 003 you’d find that each part of him is just slightly off each other. It’s no more apparent than it is on his packs. I have zero doubts that 3A struggled with trying to get this stuff matched up and it’s definitly close. But it’s a little like seeing a realistic CG face, we’ll call it the uncanny valley of color. When something’s off, even a little, it looks REALLY freaking off.

I make no claims to be a master of dyeing cloth or paint techniques in producing vinyl/plastic so I can’t offer a solution. That’s the beauty about writing a review. It gives you the means to go against the very core of constructive critism. More often than not I can toss out a reason why something is “wrong” without any half way solid ideas on how to get it “right”. I feel I’m guilty of that at this very moment and I wish I could provide a few nuggets that may steer the wayward 3A toy development person on to new and improved practices. I’ve none.

The last bit that’s more of a 3A “leftover” from previous toys than anything new to Caesar is the use of WHITE velcro. So many other toy companies use velcro as a cost saving way to fasten things together, but often it’s either cut smaller than the surrounding material or colored to match as to blend in better. The white velcro peaking out of every pack around his belt cheapens the overall appearance even more. If red was impossible to hunt down, black would have at least looked better. I hope 3A looks into some other velcro options down the line since they seem to LOVE using it whenever they can.

I wouldn’t necessarily call 003’s execution “sloppy” but definitely disappointing. Perhaps my expectations were simply too high. Given the hype and excitement surrounding this release, I don’t know what else to call it.

FINAL WORD

What’s confusing to me about this set is that at first blush it was to be all about neat and clean perfection. Caesars are of 3A’s LUX line and Rothchild is the pinnacle character of Ashley Wood’s World War Robot. Their designs are spot free, simple and by all accounts should hold up to some form of white glove treatment.

Instead, we find so much is swept under the rug or rather, appear rushed. While 003’s mismatched red hues and sometimes visually orange skirt are certainly less than awesome, it’s Rothchild that truly disappoints. Ill fitted clothing further handicapped by a big stiff velcro strip running up the front of his shirt are the tip of his poorly designed iceberg. In my case, I lucked out with one featuring a wrinkled and crooked mess of a tie to boot. His black kicks are basically stubborn rubber goth rain boots that at once allow for tons of ankle movement yet zero ankle poses. A tease letting you know that if they were better designed, you’d be able to do SO much more. In a show of minimalistic fashion mindedness, his belt matches his boots well. Too bad said belt is the cheapest looking accessory I’ve ever seen on a 3A toy. For once, I think 3A should take a few notes from Hot Toys and learn how to properly taylor some clothing. 3A needs to step up if they want to hold up.

If it sounds like I’m being overly negative.. I may be. I have to stress how much I was anticipating this set. I braced myself for some sort of understated, clean elegance when it came to Rothchild and his looming twin blade bearing red beast of a bot. Darwin’s face sculpt pulled me in much more than I expected. But a great minimalistic head sculpt doesn’t hold up when the rest is such a so close yet so far shamble. I’m honestly a little shocked how 3A could pass him on with a straight face and stiff upper lip as if to say “this is the best we can do.” One would expect more of a forced smile and a weak missed-the-palm-only-got-the-fingers hand shake followed by a brief, “yeeeah, about that…”

I don’t really know what to do with this set. I’m looking at it now from across the room and the two look really good together. But they’re.. Way. Over. There. It’s when you get up close, wet-works style that the illusion vanishes and the flaws leap out at you like a spider monkey.

If you bought this set, I’d really like to hear your thoughts. Maybe I’m too sensitive to it, expecting too much. This set could be 3A’s triple decker burrito to my collection’s glutton free digestive system. While the end result for me is something akin to diarrhea, it may not bother you in the least, in fact you may find it amazingly tasty. I really want to know.

As it stands, Darwin Rothchild Father and Son Two Pack is one of the few and definitely the biggest let downs I’ve experienced from 3A. I hate when things turn out this way.. I guess even more the reason to cry out when they do.

Pros:

Rothchild’s simplistic head sculpt has something very cool, yet subtle going on that I really dig.
Caesars in general have great articulation and are very versatile and fun to pose
The twin knives are simply beast
General layout of the color and decal design on 003 is nice
Mini Berties are cool
(File this under, “not sure it counts”) From a distance, they look great as a set. Maybe you have a high shelf to put them on… ?

Cons:

Rothchild’s terribly stiff (thanks to that stupidly massive strip of velcro) and unforgiving shirt
Rothchild’s incredibly cheap looking belt
Rothchild’s skin tight pants that also happen to be sans a much needed zipper
Rothchild’s cheapo looking hands with very visible seams
Rothchild’s rubber goth boots. Not bad to look at, but not much use either.
Ugh, white velcro on everything
003 has some very uneven red hues going on
he’s also overly toy or plastic/vinyl looking
003’s skirt and bags change from red to vaguely orange in various lights
slapdash wood paint job on min bertie
This is LUX?

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REVIEW MOTU Fisto

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

So after years of waiting.. (aka,WEEKS) Mr. Postman finally delivered Mr. Fisto. Being a newbie to collecting the “newish” Masters of the Universe Classics line I feel like I hit the jackpot with my timing. I had just ordered He-Man (review here) and Battle Cat when I saw that Fisto’s scheduled drop day was a few short days away. As a kid, Fisto was my favorite MotU character so I didn’t hesitate to mark my calendar and set my many alarms. For me, the drop rang in at 6:00am, not a relatively early time but early enough to be annoying to have to function on a level higher than a heavily sedated Malamute. My iPhone was in hand at 5.57. By 5:59 I was in a Mattel sanctioned waiting room. Fisto was in my cart and purchased by 6:15 and soon I was back to dreaming of unicorns and gummy bears.

My first mattycollector.com preorder was a success. I thought it was a pretty painless affair though following up on their forums I found that quite a few people begrudgingly missed out on him. I received a notice he was shipping the very next day on Feb 16th . Ages have passed (seriously, are they sending these out via colicing horse and buggy?) and he’s finally here. So now the cliche’ question I hope to answer, was he worth the wait?

PACKAGING

Fisto came in the same style pack as He-Man did. Classic Masters of the Universe logo splashed on a bubble topped card. I like the way these look as they’re a nice call back to the days of years past, but bubble cards in general are something I’m always at odds with. I much prefer a box style pack or even sliding bubble packs where you can cut a few thin pieces of tape that allow you to easily slide the bubble off without destroying the card. It’s the never ending conundrum for the toy collector. I just don’t think it has to be that way.

The back shows some other figures to put on your “want list” and of course, Fisto’s backstory. I love that the story art is a throwback to the old school comics that used to come packed in with the original figures. I wish they still did that, it’d be awesome to have a mini series continuing the saga. I’m sure printing cost is a huge factor in why they don’t.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

When I was a kid, I’d almost always misplace the extra accessory that my toys came with. I’m happy to report that Fisto comes with plenty of extra things to lose. You get a removable belt, a purple sword that just like the original toy of old, is the same sword that comes with Tri-clops, an extra MASSIVE sword from an older unreleased prototype and an extra crown bearing head.

THE BREAKDOWN

Man, Fisto rocks. In what could have been the shortest review ever, I’ll go ahead and expound on that statement. Right off, I’m blown away by the fantastic sculpt (courtesy of the ever impressive Four Horsemen). Fisto looks grizzled, but not haggard, ready to fight, but not menacing. The details in his beard and face such as the frown lines between his eyes are spot on. While I liked the way He-Man turned out, Fisto’s face came out a lot more realistic and believable. I’m pretty sure I’ve even seen someone somewhere who looks like just like him, sans giant metal fist.

One of the cool details that some may not notice right away is that his right bicep is actually sculpted larger than his left. There’s even a bulging vein to accentuate the strength and effort it takes for him to swing that ginormous steel fist around.

Speaking of the fist, it looks perfect. A few gold accent colors on the knuckles break up the silver nicely and of course the sculpt is impeccable. I used to pop the old Fisto’s fist off and pretend he could shoot it at bad guys like Thor throwing his hammer, but I’m not sure that’s possible here. I’m not doing very much “pretending to shoot at bad guys” these days, plus I didn’t want to risk breaking my shiny new toy so I can’t verify this one way or the other. Side note: It’s amazing how easy it is for one to at once make claims of maturity and then completely disintegrate said claim in the same sentence. Moving on.

You get a bunch of options with Fisto in how you want to display him. My favorite way being with his giant sword sheathed in the molded loop on his back, while he holds the smaller sword in his hand. Throw the very nicely detailed belt on and he’s ready to go.

The most obvious change is a quick swap of the heads. While both heads share several of the same deets, I’d give the edge to the original. The crown looks cool on the secondary, but the paint on his face looks a little bit flat compared to the first. Personal preference here definitely applies.

Fisto is just as articulated as He-Man was and also shares the same limitations I mentioned in that review. The only real difference being his massive fist which pivots at his forearm. You get a pretty good range of motion out of him overall. His vest piece, when combined with the belt does limit some of his waist/torso articulation. It’s nothing terrible, but it does prevent his full range of motion.

I think one of my favorite details on Fisto is actually on his belt. On the back of it is a small book and pouch. They are not removable, but add so much character to the figure. Seeing them had me wondering what they were all about. Does Fisto keep a diary? It’s kind of a shame they’re on his back, because there’s nothing aesthetically pleasing about the big flat circular fastener they’re next to.

In the picture above you might notice that giant sheath/loop that you use to hold Fisto’s massive sword. While I think it’s a great feature, I wish they would have figured out a way to also allow for the smaller sword to be held there as well. Like the extra head, if you decide you’d like to have him holding the Cloud Strifian blade, you basically have to find some place to store it. You can sort of hook the hilt of the purple blade on the edge of the loop, but it doesn’t hold up to much posing or when viewing it from the back. Sit and forget and it’s a serviceable solution.

Another really cool touch is the tiny iron fist sculpted on the end of the massive sword’s hilt. The sword itself is a little too anime for my taste, but sheathed with that fist sticking up in the air is straight up beast.

Overall, the paint application on Fisto is really superb. Small details abound on his face, armor, fist, belt, swords.. the subtle goodness is everywhere. Like He-Man, the shading on the skin gradates to support the sculpted form beneath. I really like that Mattel doesn’t just give us flat “muscle bound” plastic and call it a day. They do seem to care how these toys are made.

Alas, as with all things in life, Fisto is not perfect. The most garish of these blemishes comes in the form of his smooth silver painted midriff, painfully viewable once you remove his armor. I just don’t get the reasoning for this. Was Mattel concerned about Fist’s armor coming across like a belly shirt or something? If you pose him in a certain stretched manner, I imagine if not for the silver coating there might have been a belly button peaking out but come on, this just looks silly. On top of the silver paint, it’s completely smooth as there’s also no sculpting to speak of either.

There are exactly two other small things that keeps my main man, Fisto from being perfectly executed. First, the paint detail on his chest piece does not carry on from front to back. For whatever reason (ran out of paint?) it ceases at the armor split. Yes it’s on his back, but believe it or not these are objects that we can turn and twist at will. It’s not really hidden. We can still see it. The second thing is more of a defect in my particular toy and may not carry on to yours. His sword hand has some mashed digits, as though they were pinched in a machine or clipped by nail clippers. It’s a small thing, possibly caused by during manufacturing but it still puts a bit of tarnish on his otherwise gold star. I wouldn’t have even mentioned it but so far I’m 3 for 3 on my MotU figures arriving with defects. All minor, but no less annoying when the cost and wait period is as high as it is.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So regular head, belt, and chest armor on, big sword sheathed on his back, purple sword at the ready in his left hand and giant fist held menacingly so.. this is how Fisto shalt be presented in my house. My short time with MotU Classics has already been really rewarding so far. I’m really digging these figures! Fisto continues to reign as my favorite figure from this toyline. A few small issues keep him from being the perfect MotU figure in my eyes. Mattel’s odd design choice in going with smooth silver at his midriff and the lack of the otherwise fantastic paint details carrying on throughout the character might cause you a small amount of emo, but I can promise that you’ll get over it.

Fisto looks great and he comes with a bunch of fun things to mess around with (and hopefully not lose in the process). So to answer my cliche’ question of “is he worth the wait?” let me emphatically say…

Yup.

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REVIEW MOTU He-Man

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Knives

I’m pretty excited about this review as it’s officially Rad Toy Review’s first non-ThreeA toy review. When I started this site, I never set out with the goal to review or discuss every toy under the sun. There are plenty of other sites that strive to do that and do it really well. Our goal here may seem a little bit selfish and self-indulgent. We look for toys and toy companies that feed into our nostalgia and resonate with us on a personal level. There’s no label associated with it, no brand loyalty. It basically just comes down to whether or not we think it’s cool and believe you might think it’s cool too. So as we attempt to slowly branch out, don’t be surprised if things feel random from time to time. Selfish, self-indulgent or not, we do truly hope you enjoy what we’re trying to put together here and I thank you for reading week after week!

Warning: Long backstory/introduction ahead. If you don’t want to take a trip down memory lane with me, feel free to skip forward a few paragraphs. 🙂

– Knives

INTRO

Growing up I had more GI Joe figures than any other kid at my school. I had shoeboxes filled to the brim with them. My friends and I would take all our collective Joes and spend hours setting up elaborate battle scenes, carefully posing each and every figure on the brink of an epic world ending war. Usually the set up time far outlasted the actual war time as parentally sanctioned “reasonable” bedtimes still applied to my friends and I. We’d usually leave the battleground as it lay with plans to continue the chaos the next day but more often than not we’d just end up picking them up and starting all over again. The joy of toys and part of what I loved so much about GI Joes, was posing them and positioning them in ways that made them look “cool”.. to fit whatever story I had going on in my 8 – 13 year old brain.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Wintergarden, FL my cousins were amassing a huge army of their own. I’d visit them about 2 times a year during the Christmas Holiday and summer break. Each visit, it never failed. I’d find myself just staring in awe at the insane amount of toys they had jammed in their tiny room. Shelves, bookcases, the closet and under the bed, all just packed. Thing is they didn’t care about GI Joe, Transformers, Voltron, Star Wars, Teddy Ruxpin, etc.. nor did they have any. We’d all watch the cartoons/marketing material on Saturday morning of course, but their interest and their collection was 100% set on something all together else.

Masters of the Universe.

Endless battles were fought. We didn’t bother setting things up like I did with my GI Joe’s. My cousins weren’t in to that and frankly there wasn’t all that much to pose as limited in articulation He-Man and his lot were back then. Instead our battles were fast paced and a little like dodge ball. We’d one by one pick our teams, take an armload outside and just go at it. Toys were killing toys before all of us could even get outside. More often than not my cousin Nate would target his little brother’s favorite fig and do something that would result in both his arms being chopped off. This was one of our favorite “battle wound” for classic MotU figs. Living in a rural area of FL also gave us plenty awesome places to play with these guys. I’m sure more than a few of them can still be found stuck in the mud somewhere in the Florida wetlands.

Thanks to those trips, my parents were suddenly “forced” to offset my GI Joe and Transformer hoarding and pepper in some Masters of the Universe. I loved the characters and did all my chores and homework to the best of my ability anytime there was a even a chance my folks would consider buying me one the next time we were at the local shop. My MotU collection never reached my GI Joe’s level, but it was respectable. I just loved the characters and couldn’t get enough of them!

Fast forward twenty-some odd years to today. I’m a little baffled that as long as I’ve been collecting toys that this is the first NEW Masters of the Universe figure I’ve had since probably ’88 or ’89. Despite the long delay in feeding the habit, I believe the waits been well worth it.

To the review!

PACKAGING

I ordered He-Man together with a few other items (reviews coming soon) from mattycollector.com. They arrived safely packed together in a single large brown shipping box. Ripping it open I found a very plain white box with the MotU and Mattel logos and the words “Adult Collector” on it. Given it’s un-flashiness I assume it’s just meant as another layer of protection for your goodies. I can understand wanting to preserve your collectibles and that some of you like to keep your stuff minty mint on the card so I get it. But if I was one of those kind of collectors, I might have been a tad miffed. Despite both shipping boxes being perfect with no noticeable damage, the actual card was slightly bowed, bent and dinged… I guess it’s a good thing I’m not one of those collectors!

The card itself is pretty cool with some nods to the MotU figures of old with the OG logo and lightning graphics. On the back you can see a few other characters “available”, a snippit of classic art from the old school pack-in comics accompanied by a little backstory on He-Man, “the most redundantly named man in the universe!” (said in echo-y cool cartoon voice)

WHAT’S INCLUDED

He-Man comes with the sword of power, a half of the sword of power, a battle axe and shield. For some reason I failed to grab the half sword when I was taking my photos. If I’m remembering correctly, the original He-Man didn’t come with the full sword at all and only the half sword. I believe Skeletor had the other half. It was a cool bit of story, but even as a little kid I thought it was lame that half of He-Man’s sword was flat with little pegs sticking out of it. So I’m really happy that Mattel included the full sword of power with this set. I always really liked having He-Man carry his shield and ax more than his sword for some reason, (probably the flat/pegs thing) though I don’t recall ever seeing He-Man use anything BUT his sword in the cartoons. Anyway, the variety is nice.

THE BREAKDOWN

He-Man, from the Masters of the Universe Classics collection came out a couple years ago but Mattycollector.com recently rereleased him and made him readily available on their site. According to the the description a few small improvements were made on the rerelease over the original. From their sales page, “The figure has the shoulders corrected (reversed), the red around the eyes removed, and his overall body gloss is toned down.” Having never owned the other version of him I can’t really comment on these adjustments short of “Yay for refinement!”

The first thing that struck when I popped our spray tanned hero out of the bubble wrap was how great the sculpt is. The Four Horsemen have done some really fine work here. It’s all very clean and detailed. They did a great job of incorporating the joints into the sculpt so that the lines and gaps flow as nicely as possible. Pretty important for a figure who is mostly naked save some fuzzy underwear. He Man also feels substantial. He’s not heavy, but you don’t feel like he’ll break into a million pieces if he takes a tumble or two. In fact I’ve tested this theory as the poor man fell several times off the stone wall onto the concrete floor during the photo shoot, none the worse for wear. What a trooper!

You can kit him up in a bunch of different ways. Single sword, sword and shield, axe and shield, dual wielding.. whatever you like. There are quite a few options to play around with. Again, variety is nice.

A cool detail is the strap on the back of his “X” chest piece that’ll hold a spare accessory. Even works with his shield.

The chest piece is also removable via some small snaps in the back if you fancy He-Man showing a little more nip.

The paint on his body is pretty subtle. It’s hues of light orange and tan to give some nice shading support to the sculpt underneath. The same can be said for the paint details on his clothing and weapons. Each piece is purposely painted and gives the overall figure a real look of quality. There were a few spots of random black paint that I couldn’t clean off as well as some strange scuffs on the inside of his right leg. After looking down the barrel of Mattel’s dreadfully long, drawn out exchange/return policy.. I decided to subscribe to the “these guys are mass produced, a few glitches are expected” school of thought and just live with them.

I remember thinking how weird the originals He-Mans face was when compared to the cartoon. The toy had a much more “mature” and frankly, ugly look to it’s face than the younger, handsomer cartoon version. As a kid, I never quite came around to it.. it always bothered me. It just didn’t look like the same guy. The current sculpt is a million times better. While He-Man’s face is still stuck in a sorta frustrated gritted teeth wince, it’s much more natural and fits the character perfectly. His chiseled jaw and blunt nose give him the appropriate “strongest man in the universe” appearance without making him too gnarly. I’m sure Teela or whoever (wasn’t Teela his sister?) would think he’s a hotty. The paint on eyes while nice and sharp, looks a smidge off.. at least on my figure. I can’t quite get him to look as though he’s focused on anything. Is he slightly wall-eyed? Lazy-eyed? I can’t tell. Another thing is that I wish there was a little more detail in the hair. While the sculpt is fine, the paint is pretty much just flat yellow. Would have been nice if they took the time to do a little darker wash to get into the recesses and make the details pop a bit more.

Something I was really happy about is that there are quite a few points of articulation scattered all about. The old MotU figs only had a tiny handful of joints. This really didn’t give them a huge range of movement. Of course back then, articulation wasn’t near as common place or considered “important” as it is today. I think most kids just grabbed their hero, flew him around the room and slammed him into the badguys face first.. I don’t know, that’s how we did it anyway. Now days, practically every action figure in the toy isle sports 30 gazillion points of articulation so you can bend the action figure into a McFarlane style Spider-man pretzel. Saying that, I find it a little ironic that most McFarlane toys have little to no articulation at all.. but I digress.

I think the real art form of articulation in toys comes from how well it’s implemented. It’s finding that balance of letting you move the little guys/gals/turtles about as much as possible and maintaining the overall cohesive look of the figure. If the toys neck has a triple sliding ball joint… cool. But if that joint gives Han Solo something akin to a giraffe neck, it’s not quite so great. Exceptions and trade offs have to made somewhere.

As I said before, I think the placement of the joints and sculpt of the figure work brilliantly together, aesthetically speaking. Thanks to that you’ll be able to squeeze a decent handful of poses out of him while he still maintains a fairly natural look.

BUT as with most toys it won’t take you long to find there are a few limitations as well.

Most of what I came across I consider pretty minor and are obvious aesthetic/articulation trade-offs, but I thought I’d mention the few that bugged me the most.

The first joint I’m not a huge fan of is the stomach hinge. To me, it feels completely unnecessary. It’s the most obtrusive visually but it’s also the most limited articulation wise. It won’t give him the ability to touch his toes or the opposite extreme of that. It merely gives him a small degree of freedom in pivoting his chest up or down. I guess I’m glad it’s there as it gives some limited flexibility, I just didn’t find it being incredibly useful. I’m not sure the visual trade-off warrants it.

If I could add an additional joint, I think it’d be ball joints at the wrist. Having a more evolved type of wrist joint would open up the MotU characters to a ton of other poses that you can’t get with the simple swivel joint that exists. Most high-end articulated toys have these. Besides as is, you really cannot 100% achieve his classic “I have the POWER!!” stance. As iconic as that is, I have to wonder if it was at all considered during the development process.

I think the one thing that bothered me the most was that the fact that He-Man is incapable of touching his hands together. This is kind a big deal for a barbarian-sword swinging-Conan warrior-type of character. It makes any sort of two handed sword or axe posing impossible. Let alone, getting in a quick game of single player thumb war. This is only maginfied when you realize that his elbow joints won’t allow for a 90 degree bend thanks to his massive bicepts being in the way. It’s actually kinda comical and makes him look like he’s been hitting the steroids a little to heavily. While I’m sure this had more to do with keeping the model appearance clean than anything else, it has that “so close, yet so far” feeling to it that may endlessly frustrate me.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I might be a little star struck since this is my first figure from the line, but I can say with complete confidence that this will not be my last Masters of the Universe Classics figure. The overall execution of this toy is top notch from the impeccable sculpt to the details of the armor/clothes and weapons. I’m a fan. While there’s a few things I hope Mattel will improve on in the future, maybe some R&D into further articulation and joint types, what’s here is pretty darn impressive, especially for a $20 toy.

Most importantly and something I haven’t mentioned yet, he’s FUN. The plain white box says clearly on the front “adult collectors”, but if I had children I’d be buying these guys left and right for them. Amass them an army of muscle bound colorful warriors. As much fun as I had playing with my cousins and their ridiculously massive original MotU collection back in the day, I can’t imagine how much fun I would have had with this updated version. Take one part GI Joe articulation and combine it with all the things that made the original Masters of the Universe so wonderful and you have yourself some fantastic toys for adults and kids alike!

So yes, He Man certainly won’t be my last MotU figure and I really can’t wait to get a few more on my shelf. After all, once Mattel finally gets off it’s rump and releases an updated Castle Grayskull, I can’t just have it sitting about all empty and vacant now can I?

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Updates

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Knives

Hey folks! Today is Wednesday.. hump day.. etc!

So far this week, it’s been pretty quiet around these parts but there are a few things popping up soon!

Of course today being Wednesday, there will be a Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week dropping extremely, incredibly, intensely soon! Like, literally seconds after we post this.

Masters of the Universe fans rejoice.. someone finally got around to taking a closer look a few of these really cool, Four Horsemen sculpted figs. Review = soon.

All new Workshop this Friday! As usual, it’ll be a good ‘n!

In other news.. I had planned to start a video review feature for the site and post it up this past week. Well, as fate would have it, my video camera decided to take a swim with the fishes which effectively kill my idea. But don’t lose heart dear reader, I will again one day procure a camera and make with the video reviews.. You’ll be the first to know when I do!

While the pace hasn’t been as brisk the past two or three weeks around here as we’d like.. In the next few weeks we’ll be doing reviews for figures from Kotobukiya, Play Arts Kai, Mattel and of course 3A. We’re also excited about the slew of all new Workshops we’ve planned to hand craft just for all you customizing crazies.

Thanks for reading!

– Knives