Jan 11, 2015

Looking back at MOTUC's 2014 Line-up

Now that we're at 2015, the "Final Year" of Masters of the Universe Classics line-up, it's fair that we look at Last year's roster.

I did it to the following years:
2008-2009: Year one
2010: Enter PoP and NA into the mix.
2011: The Line's so called Highest point
2012: The 30th Anniversary of He-Man
2013: The Year of the Castle, and Nepthu, the TURD.

Having all the years lined up will make it easier for 2016 when I check out the 2015 Roster.
Y'all seen the Format. If I own the Item, the grade will be in RED. If I missed/skipped the item, it'll be in BLUE.  The evaluation on the year has nothing to do with the previous score I gave the Figure on its review (if I own said figure) I'm looking at general issues and how that figure plays in the grand scheme of things. That's why some figures that fared better on the ICFTTC will get lower grades here, or vice versa.

Two Bad: A-
I still stand by the notion that making Two-Bad a "punishment" for non-subscribers was a dick move.
This guy would have sold pretty well, especially for Customizers who would have wanted as many Two-Bad parts as possible available to make Tuvar and Bhaddra.

Glimmer: C+
As everyone who has listened me on Council of the First Ones, or read my rants, Y'all know that I am obsessed with Glimmer, mai waifu... Sadly, that bumbling designer and douchenozzle, Ruben screwed her up. Giant ass pizza slice codpiece, non-GITD Staff. The Horsemen kinda screwed her up because she no longer looks like The Great Rebellion's jailbait. She looks like an Adult Glimmer. Then there's the Marble. She got one new hand for it when she could have easily reused the Spellcasting/Claw hand and a Pink reuse of Castaspella's blast. Don't get me wrong I Glimmer, but she is less than perfect.

Modulok: S
Yes, I'm using the Japanese Grade S to go BEYOND A+, because he is THAT Awesome. While I'm calling him Beyond Perfect, which he kinda is when compared to other figures. Compared to the vintage figure he has a few issues (Less Y connectors than his vintage counterpart and the inability to split at the Torso.) Aside those two things, he is perfect. I can refresh him with a different configuration and make the Horde Display feel renewed (especially now that we're only missing Dragstor and MultiBot)

Hydron: D+
Poor, poor Hydron! Tell us where the mean old Ruben touched you! All jokes aside, Design dropped the ball with Hydron and it shows. New Adventures characters have a stigma of suckitude that stems from our childhoods and how Mattel changed He-Man to some lame Star Wars ripoff. While I learned to love NA thanks to figures like Flipshot and Optikk, Hydron makes it harder to sell NA as something cool. The Puffy vest, The Air Hose of his SCUBA tank covering up his eyes, the lack of a Second head do not help the SCUBA DIVER IN SPACE to look cool. He's like the Stratos of New Adventures. Brings so little to the table, but is a core character.

The Unnamed One: D
I'm being a bit fair with the UNO. He should get an F, but his cool sculpt helps his grade a little.
Neitlich's game of hiding the UNO helped generate the hype that was UNO's downfall. On a line where the Heroes and Villains are so "Black and white" having "The Ultimate Evil" be "an ORKO" can be a bit off-putting. Then there's the whole Orko = Accessory. UNO, a slightly larger Orko = $25 Figure... Exactly.

Blade: B
The First Movie Figure suffered a lot. One of his swords was TOO FREAKING BIG for his hands, then the lack of Paint Applications on his accessories hurt him. Other than that he is a pretty sweet figure... that you have to get third party weapons for him to work properly.

Scorpia: A-
Another Filmation Character. you can see the love on the Horsemen's Sculpt. The attention to detail is fantastic! The little bumps on her scorpion parts kick her up a notch and sets an example on how Filmation Characters should be "Classicized". If she had gotten a Second Accessory, she would have
been a bit better.

Battle Lion: A
He's nothing more than Battle Cat With 200X Armor, but a Lion Head and Tail. If you're not into 200X, but are into POP, I have one thing to say: Pink paint, lots of it...

Extendar: C-
If you thought Hydron was bad, wait till you get to see Extendar. The flaws on him make Hydron LOOK a lot better. He has Fat Armor, more obvious when unstretched. Design screwed up his forearms. The Peg should have been in the Forearm and the hole should have been in the bracer in order to preserve the original length of the forearm. Ruben made it backwards and this forced a much longer forearm. While the Leg issue makes the legs less vintage accurate, it KINDA makes sense, except when one pulls off the boot of anpther figure, you can see that the Peg is not on the boot, but on the shin. Now we have the Elephant in the Room: The Belt. The Safety issues excuse was pure Bull. He scores slightly higher than Hydron because he has accessories and is a bit more cooler than "The Scuba guy".

Flogg: C
The Mutant Leader finally graces MOTUC He has a bunch of old parts combined with a few new parts that ALMOST give us a faithful version of the Mutant Leader. He is based on the slightly more "vicious" look of his toy than the bumbling buffoon from the Cartoon. He fares a bit lower thanks to the reuse of the Hordak feet. He needed some new feet badly... And some new shins too! Then the Accessories. His "Fishing Rod" is a hassle to display him with and the other Accessory is a not so great interpretation of the Filmation Power Sword.
NA Skeletor:F
Overlord of Evil goes to Space and once again, Ruben drops the ball. Ruben and Ball Dropping seems to be a common theme... How is it possible that he's doing rookie Mistakes when he's been working for Mattel for over 10 years!! Bloated, GLUED ON ARMOR even though it has tabs that make it obvious that it was meant to be removable. Backwards Shoulders that cannot be fixed since they made the pegs to plug the biceps in different sizes. Lack of paint on the cybernetics on his body, gummy hands that can barely hold the new staff. Super thick neck overlay that makes it nearly impossible to display any other head aside the normal NA Head. The only saving grace is the Fakeminator head.

Flutterina: B
Mrs. Clamp Champ is a well done figure, but a bit vanilla. That's all I have to say about her.

Rio Blast: C-
Ruben Strikes back! Fat Armor, Chest flap not closing properly, you name it, Rio has it. He's not as bad as Extendar, but he's getting there. Also, no paint on his backpack.

Eldor: A-
The Final Missing 80s figure from the Powers of Grayskull sub-line. Here the Horsemen went out of their way to make the Old Man in a Hoodie cooler. The only real issues with him are the gummy Staff and the Monkey lips.

Tunglashor: A
My Favorite Snakeman. He is awesome and the only REAL issue with him is the reduced Articulation on his feet.
Arrow: C
He's OK-ish, but a vanilla release. He needed some Oomph! Damn those hard to remove saddlebags!!

Mermista: B
I've been waiting for her, ever since Clawful. It's figures like this that make me question the $25 for Madame Razz, and UNO, or the $20 for Loo-Kee/Kowl pack and the $35 for Gwildor. One issue that seems to be common with Mermista figures is the warped right foot. Some have reported the glitter on her tail falling off.

Gwildor: B-
$35... For a Small Sized Figure. Smells like a rip-off! The extra cosmic key looks nice, but feels a bit unneeded. I kinda wish they had made the Normal Cosmic Key to have a removable handle so we could have the MOVIE styled key!

Now for the Non-Club Eternia Items:

Kowl and Loo-Kee: C
While these two are not Full Price, they feel like a rip-off. They're not bigger than a Blind Bag Hasbro MLP MINI toy. Having them is cool, because they complete the POP sets. Seriously? $20 for them and only ONE Stand and no accessories kinda stings.
Goat Man: B+
The Traveling Con Item was the Sole representative from the Golden Books. A rather easy figure to make since it's mostly made out of shared parts. Some of the new pieces are super cool as well. Oooh! That Hammer is FREAKING A-MAZING!! Then add the Emerald Staff of Avion (a bit funkier than the Filmation Staff of Avion) and you can put Goat Man into the cooler-looking characters (and help Stratos be less boring).

Filmation Hordak: C
Another Figure that felt a bit of a rip-off. Neitlich dropped the ball here. (for once someone other than Ruben is doing the Ball Dropping) An Extra arm, Imp and the unneeded 200X Staff made it $30. Other than that He's OK. He needed the Head and Armor to be a TRUE Filmation Hordak.

Double Trouble: F+
The "Man-E-Faces" of Princess of Power... So, for ONCE Mattel tried to do the Action Feature and they failed... HORRIBLY!! There were better ways to implement it, but Ruben chose the easiest and laziest. The Horde Crossbow was a sweet idea! Right now the only thing that can SAVE Double Trouble is getting a Customizer to make two custom heads that the helmet and hair can plug into And to cannibalize a MOTUC Figure to make a frankenfigure that fits the MOTUC aesthetic better.

Madame Razz: B-
Another figure that makes me wonder WHY are we paying FULL PRICE for these? It's amazing that we have her, but part of me wishes she had come with something else. She barely reaches a figure's crotch and only came with broom. She needed SOMETHING EXTRA...

Entrapta: B
The Final Girl Horde toy in the line has finally arrived. She's a nice figure but she has no accessory of her own. (I stole She-Ra's 2 Combaxes to give her something.) She's rather well done, surprisingly.

Sweet Bee: C+
The new Etherian Loli has arrived. The Head Sculpt (especially the hair) did create some issues with here. Then the reduced articulation and sloppy paintjobs in her weapon made this figure a bit more disappointing. Not to mention the whole "no DoS" of her to "punish" non subscribers. Mattel lost potential sales here, because PEOPLE COULD HAVE ARMY BUILT BEE PEOPLE with those helmets!!

NA She-Ra: A-
The Figure that Former MOTU Manager, Toyguru thought would be the MOST Controversial figure of 2014. Having a Variant meant that Perfuma would end up as a 2015 figure, which scared POP fans. Now unto She-Ra herself. She had some mild issues on the head. Something looks off. The quality of the plastic on her accessories (holster and gun) seems to be a bit off.

Spinnerella: C-
The Big Ticket Item of the POP sub. Another figure that feels Overpriced. Ruben cut Corners and... Guess what happened. He dropped the ball! The one figure that needed rotating forearm bracers. I must say that the Hair Piece was a stroke of genius (sadly, I can't remove it on mine unless I want to risk ruining the figure). They really should have used cloth tassels for her... Mossman is flocked, Grizzlor has hairy fur, Megator has tooted hair. Having Spinnerella with cloth tassels would have helped her look a bit better.


Battle Ram with Man-at-Arms: A- for the vehicle B for MAA
I feel it's overpriced, even without the extra cost of the THIRD MAA Variant. The alternate head for the War Sled is pretty nifty. The Ram itself looks awesome, but the stress marks on the sled worry me a little.

No comments:

Post a Comment