Masters of the Universe Origins Battle Cat review

Well this didn’t take long, did it? The first wave Masters of the Universe (MOTU) Origins- essentially a revamp of the original toy line for a new generation of kids as much as old collectors- has promptly given us one of the most iconic characters from MOTU,  if not one of the most iconic toys of the 80s. The mighty Battle Cat. But is He-Man's trusted steed (sort of) an impressive beast or a scared little cringer of a toy?

Storm Collectibles Ultra Street Fighter 2 Sagat review

In 1990 I frequented a crummy sandwich bar in my high street. It was an awful place to eat but it always had a steady rotation of the latest arcade games. It had all the hot games: Chase H.Q, Golden Axe, the four-player ninja turtles, but the one game I played more than any other was Street Fighter 2 (SF2). Because it came out so long ago it’s easy to forget how this game redefined the genre. The best fighting game until then was Pit Fighter, and that was rubbish! Every fighting game that we have now wouldn’t exist without SF2. But getting action figures over the years have been hit and miss. There was the G.I. Joe figures which were mixed in terms of quality; the super articulated SOTA Toys were excellent but ended too soon, leaving more popular characters to exchange hands for ridiculous prices on the secondary market; the exhaustive Jazzwares line which...well, it happened, let’s just leave at that.  Now a new challenger arrives in the form of Storm Collectables, who have been making figures based on several fighting games for a few years now, but recently have produced figures based on the classic SF2 (or Ultra Street Fighter 2 to be precise) designs. And the first SF figure I’ve got from them is the king of muay thai, the giant lieutenant of shadaloo, Sagat. But will their efforts be top tier or a scrub?

Masters of the Universe Origins Skeletor review

Well here comes Mr controversy. When Mattel first revealed the masters of the universe (MOTU) origins line, the most hue and cry was over Skeletor. The skeletal arch enemy of He-Man broke from tradition by having an open mouth on the face sculpt, and if we’ve learned anything from geek fandoms is that change is bad. But change, as they say, is inevitable and last time I checked my mum wasn’t on the design team so blaming her wont do any good, so I’ll just have to review it and make my own mind up about it instead of assimilating the opinion of a clickbait youtuber. Which is much cheaper. 

So let’s  just address the elephant in the room and critique its face. I, like most people, was not enamoured  with the face sculpt. There has been Skeletor heads with an open mouth before but they were simulating the filmation, floating skull design where the slightly lowered jaw references his trademark cackle. But this figure has an gaping maw that looks like Skeletor is trying to eat an entire pizza, whole. But some weeks have passed and now I can inspect it up close and I’ve warmed to it. Yes, it is ridiculous and that’s the point. Once you embrace the absurdity (you have people living in medieval castles with robots and talking cats, it’s not exactly The Wire) it makes perfect sense. With just a tilt of the head he could be laughing in triumph, in shock that He-Man wasn’t crushed by that one boulder that appears in every episode, or yelling at his henchmen. These toys are made to be played with and in doing so is where you will find the joy in owning this figure. After an hour of messing around with different head poses, Skeletor’s face sculpt went from one of my least favourites to one of the standouts in the line so far. The only real negative I have is I’m not wild about the paint job on the face. It’s green with some yellow painted on- just like vintage Skeletor- but the green is more of a soft avocado green than the bright acid green of old, so may have to repaint it at some point. Also, the red and black that make the eyes have been applied too thinly because you can see the yellow paint coming through. The body and accompanying armour and boots are a direct throwback to the original figure. Side by side with a vintage skeletor (bear in mind the skin tone has faded over the decades) and you can see the musculature and armour are near identical- so I suppose you could look at origins as the natural progression to the vintage MOTU figure. Even the boots are the same, with the distinct scales and the webbed feet. I bet if someone who was a kid in the 80s saw this, they’d easily mistake it for the original toy- which I guess is part of the point. Only thing I don’t get is why his armour fastens like the vintage? Origins He-Man has new armour which has a new sword holder, but not for Skeletor. He has to carry his sword around all the time.

Size comparison with Classics Skeletor

With Super7 Filmation 5.5" Skeletor

With the original Skeletor

Hunker him down and it's pretty much the same body

Something that isn’t like the old Skeletor is the articulation. The head is on a ball joint so it can completely turn around, look up, down and tilt to the side all to you hearts content. The shoulders rotate a full 360 degrees and pivot out to about 45 degrees. The elbows bend at 45 degrees and almost fully turn within the socket, and the hands completely rotate and pivot up and down allowing for some really nice arm and weapon poses. The waist fully rotates 360 degrees. The legs are attached via a pivot joint and have a decent range of movement: the legs come forward about 40 degrees,  not fully forward but enough to have him sit on something. They pretty much cant move back but they come out sideways at a near right angle,  so with some adjustments in the hip and waist you can give the impression of one of the legs placed back. The knees bend 45 degrees and fully rotate in the socket when straightened. There’s a fully rotational boot-cut and the ankle can pivot back and forward  as well as lean to the side allowing for some really dramatic poses. I don’t know how much play will render the joints in the legs loose but as it comes out of the blister, Skeletor stands like a champion. But, as you would’ve seen in my origins He-Man review, the head, arms, hands, torso and boots all detach, allowing for modular parts swapping with other MOTU origins figures (and WWE universe figures if you live in the States).

"It's too small. Trapjaw! Call the catalogue, I'm sending it back"

"Why, god? Why?"

A half and half shot of the modular parts

"Ooh, me back!"

"Feel that! It's rock solid"

Skeletor’s accessories aren’t surprising but welcome nonetheless. You get the old school evil half of the sword of power- which when linked with the good half grants the wielder access to castle Grayskull. Just like origins He-Man, the handle has a guard to secure it in the right, gripping hand. A nice feature is it’s molded in a harder plastic than the vintage sword so it hasn’t warped in the package and gone all floppy. Although, like every two-halved sword of power, it splits outward at the tip of the blade, so maybe glue the halves together if you want a permanent whole sword.But, of course, where would Skeletor be without his trademark havok staff? It looks very similar to the vintage staff, right down to the ram skull with the gap in the horns filled in from the injection molding process and comes in that oh-so-familiar dark purple. There is some flex in the plastic but not enough that it goes all curved to one side like the vintage staff would often do, so you can’t say fairer than that. And not forgetting the mini-comic, which is the same one that came with He-Man. I do hope this isn’t the case with the whole line, as back in the 80s, when the toys preceded the cartoon show, the mini-comics were essential to learning who the character you’d just been given was. I hope Mattel hasn’t neglected the idea of bringing in a new generation of children to MOTU just to save a bit of money. 

"Cool sword, eh?"

"Hey! It's only half finished. Trapjaw, call the catalogue!"

Spoilet alert: The next origins figure has this comic as well

"I'm wanted in 7 syst- AAAHHH!"

" AN AFTER AAAALĹL, YOU'RE MY WONDERWAAAAAL!"

"How does this fit in a key hole?"

"Ok, ok! You're new hair do looks good"

Time to update the photo

"Aaayyy, Cunningham!"

I think I’ve figured out what the Origins line is. It’s not a reboot, it’s an upgrade. Like when kids, who were not born in the 70s, were able to see the original Star Wars films in the cinema thanks to the special editions that had a cleaned up picture, beefed up sound, and improved (a depending on who you ask) special effects. That’s what these figures are. Mattel have taken an old toy line, kept all the original characters and parts their designs, and made them more akin to modern action figures so they’re more attractive to a young audience. Except this time, it’s a-ok to have the toys look like they sprinkle steroids on their corn flakes. The over the top expression just adds to the fun you can have with him, add in the modular gimmick and you get a good deal of play value and display options for a mid-priced action figure. Despite the paint issues on the face, I’ve been won over by this Skeletor. Mattel has previewed future figures that come with extra heads, one of which is an old school Skeletor head, so future versions of the MOTU cast aren’t just new editions to your collection, they’re another custom option. Definitely worth picking up.

Company: Mattel

Price paid: £14.99

Bought from:Amazon UK

Age:  6+

Neca Ultimate Flasher Gremlin review

Go back a decade or so, Neca toys made figures more akin to statues: articulation kept to a minimum for the sake of preserving the integrity of the body sculpt and high quality paint apps because it wasn’t like the adult collectors were going to play with them. But time moves on, attitudes change, and collectors want more articulation-in no small part due to the rising popularity in toy photography (aka the part of Instagram that isn’t D-list celebrities on their holiday, or animal abuse) and over the years Neca figures have gone from glorified statues to fully articulated action figures with the same level of detail that put them on the map. So it’s no surprise Neca would revisit characters they made figures of in the past with added articulation and new accessories with their “ultimates" line. So avert your eyes,  and warn the neighbourhood watch: the flasher's back!

Masters of the Universe: Origins He-Man review

 

This was supposed to arrive mid to late September, yet look what just turned up at my house? And it seemed like I had only just reviewed a new He-Man figure five minutes ago. But this is from a complete reboot of Masters of the universe (MOTU), paying homage to the toy line of old but with modern articulation and a neat customising gimmick too. MOTU Origins (to give the line its official name) is Mattel’s stab at the modern retro toy trend, and how appropriate that the first character I get is the figurehead of the brand, the most powerful man in the universe, heir to the power of Grayskull, and voted best cat owner on Eternia, three years running: it’s He-Man!

Super7 vintage style filmation Shadow Weaver review

If you’ve been following this toy blog for the past few months, then you’ll be aware of my love/hate attitude towards the female characters in Super7's retro styled 5.5 inch Filmation figures. They (mostly) all look the part but god help me if I can get them to stand. Well fate has somehow intervened and my prayers to the plastic gods (or rather whiny emails to Super7) have been answered. We have here, what may very well be the zenith of the 5.5” Filmation females, if not the entire line. Hyperbole from a desperate man with not enough figure stands, or a genuine fix to a decades-long problem? That’s for you to decide, I’m too busy reviewing an action figure of Hordak's personal sorceress, Shadow Weaver but based upon her appearance in the classic, 80s She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon show. But this is slightly different from previous Filmation toys I’ve reviewed- instead of upgrading a vintage design, Super7 has designed her from scratch as she never had a toy back in the 80s. So let’s see if they’ve captured the spirit of the cartoon or not.

Neca Toony Terrors Ash review

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Neca toys are well known for their well detailed action figures based on cult sci-fi and horror films aimed at adult collectors. So it’s a bit a departure for Neca to introduce the “Toony Terrors”, a line of horror figures based on popular and classic horror movies but using a design that looks more at home in an episode of Scooby-Doo than on a shelf of high end collectables. So I went and ordered one of the line's latest figures, Ash from Evil Dead 2. Will it be a fun, new kind of retro style toy, or will it turn out to be a cynical cash-in that should be locked away in a cabin in the woods? It’s time this meddling reviewer found out.

Super7 vintage style Filmation Stratos review

I’ve been reviewing Super7 ‘s line of 5.5 inch figures, based upon the original masters of the universe (MOTU) but remade to more closely resemble their Filmation cartoon design- of which the design change could be quite drastic. And, for the most part, I’ve been impressed with how a 2-D face can be so well translated to a 3-D sculpt, making me put money down on characters I passed on back when the original MOTU toys were on the shelves. And that’s who I’m reviewing here, a character who I never gave much thought to as a kid (maybe because he looked like one of the evil monkeys from The Wizard of Oz). And frankly, I can’t blame 5 year old me for avoiding his toy, he’s a liability, a risk to his fellow wingman. Every time he gets into the sky he’s dangerous. Well let’s hope his toy is good because there’s no place (on my toy shelf) for second best.

London Toy Fair 2020: Neca, Mezco, Cobi

That's London Toy Fair 2020 wrapped up. But not before I show a mixed bag of extra stuff I saw courtesy of Star Images, who distribute Neca and Mezco products (amongst others) to the UK. On display were the yet to be released Warriors four-pack in Mezco's 1:12 line, as well as the 1:12 Freddy Krueger. Another figure yet to see UK shelves is Neca's "ultimate" Pinhead and the retro style Candyman.  Also there was a new brand of building block toy from a Polish company, Cobi, that specialised in World War 2 era planes and battleships (and the titanic), and some tank sets branded with the mobile game World of Tanks.

London Toy Fair 2020: Playmobil

Playmobil had a huge array of new sets at London Toy Fair, so strap yourself in. There's a lot to go though with sets and vehicles from lines based on fantasy, sci-fi, real life, and Scooby Doo and back To The Future.

London Toy Fair 2020: Sixteen 12

Sixteen 12 are a maker of high-end collectibles specialising in cult, British tv shows and  movies. At London Toy Fair they had a booth showing off an all Gerry Anderson line up of limited items, items yet to come and a great big replica Eagle that you can't even buy now but it was worth taking photos of anyway.

Super7 vintage Filmation Mer-Man review

Poor Skeletor, if his life wasn't bad enough having a skull for a head and being exiled to a snake-shaped mountain, he has the worst human resources department ever. Where is he getting these guys from, an agency? Monsters who have been forced into the job or else they lose their benefit? Are they working in exchange for their lodgings? Either way, I don't think the He-Man and the Masters of The Universe cartoon would be anywhere near as entertaining if Skeletor didn't have his band of incompetent goons to virtually hand victory to He-Man every week. And now I've finally got one of those henchmen to review. The gurgling goof himself, Mer-Man. Who has been given a figure as part of Super 7's tribute to Filmation's animated show show. Plus, I had to get Mer-Man. His face is one of the baddie faces superimposed onto castle Grayskull in the intro. What choice did I have?

Unbox Indistries Marshal Law review

Many years ago, at age seven or eight, I was reading through the only comic I read at the time, Marvel UK's Transformers, when I turned onto a page advertising a new comic. It depicted a Superman-like character with a T-rex's head, and he had a massive hole blown through his torso. Opposite Super Rex stood, what looked like, a leather bound, German prison guard aiming two massive guns. Long after I had finished reading the 107th variation of good robots punching bad robots I would go back to that advert and pour over the artwork from Kevin O'Neill over and over again. I had never seen anything like it. "They must have to lock this guy up at night" I thought to myself as I obsessed the tiny details O'Neill would include on his art, right down to the puns scribbled on guns and bits of the background. A year later- thanks to a randomly bought issue of fantazia- I would find out the fascistic cop was the (anti)hero of this unknown comic strip, his name was Marshal Law and he hunted super heroes. Having eventually read Pat Mill's scathing satire of the super hero genre (Law is cited as a huge influence on Garth Ennis' The Boys) the last thing I expected to ever see was a figure of Law himself,  but Unbox Industries - who made the Zombo figure I reviewed at before- have only gone and produced a vinyl figure of San Futero's top hero hunter. If only he could find some.

Disney Toybox Wolverine review

The Disney Toybox figure line, sold exclusively through Disney stores,  don't get enough love in my opinion. They're quite underrated as action figures go and only cost £10, so let's change all that, because it can't be all high-end, adult collectibles or else I'd go broke. The Toybox line breaks down into three main categories- Disney /Pixar characters, Star Wars, and Marvel. Now that Disney owns Fox, that means the X-Men are ripe for exploitation which results in the line getting it's first mutant, the old canknuckle head, Wolverine.

Super7 vintage style filmation Teela review

Super 7's retro line of vintage style, 5 inch figures, based on Mattel's original Masters of the Universe (MOTU) toyline, but if they looked closer to their Filmation cartoon design, has had its ups and downs. Just previous, Super7 released a cracker of a Man-At-Arms figure. But there's also been a disappointing She-Ra that barely stood up and didn't resemble her cartoon model. A vintage Teela in a She-Ra costume, and now I'm reviewing that very figure, sans cosplay. Will this Filmation style Teela succeed where She-Ra failed?

My camera tripod isn't wonky, this is how she stands

Teela's trademark "vague interest" expression

In profile, you can really see the improvement in Teela's face sculpt

This shot took over 10 minutes to set up.

Side side comparison with her dad, also from the Super7

Side by side with vintage Ram Man

Comparing Teela's facesculpt to She-Ra's, I can instantly see a marked improvement. The face doesn't quite capture the likeness of the Filmation character model, but looks much more like an adult woman (unlike She-Ra's Miley Cyrus face) and it's not like I'm expecting Hot Toys levels of detail- simply because you can't get that from something about the size of my fingernail- but Man-At-Arms set the standard, so I can't just ignore that the face sculpt doesn't quite capture the cartoon likeness  the way her dad did, but it still looks pretty good. The profile is sharper than She-Ra's and the paint apps are done well, although the eyes aren't 100% dead on, but doesn't ruin the face. The hair sculpt (making her resemble a young Mrs Cunningham from Happy Days) and tiara are also excellent- absolutely nailing the cartoon look.  I think if the face was painted with arched eyebrows, as Teela had in the cartoon, then it would have been near perfect. Her  (for lack of a better term) swimsuit is really well realized- what with Filmation wanting to keep detail to a minimum (makes for easier and cheaper animation)- even though there's not much to to her outfit, other than the ram horn top, the flaired collar, and that leaf thing that hangs down from the middle of her waist all  look correct. The dark gold are a good match for the cartoon outfit, although the gold on the swimsuit is coloured plastic so it has a shiny finish as opposed to the same dark gold on the tiara and arm bracers which are painted with a flat finish. The only paint issues are the arm bracers, the white paint is a bit sloppy at the edge and there is a white speck on the arm. Speaking of arms, because this figure shares the same mold as She-Ra, that means she also has the same weird left arm with the downturned hand that looks a bit like an empty, flesh-coloured glove. I know, Super7 is just keeping things faithful to the original Mattel design, but it looked bad back in the 80s and it looks bad now. I still can't fathom why a professional toy designer would make such a...wait a minute, I think I've figured it out...

"Hey, baby. Check my flex!"

Normally I'd go through the articulation from the head, down to the feet. But I felt I had to go straight to I was slightly dreading, after what I went through with She-Ra I had to address main issue with the vintage Teela design, those sanity breaking legs. Sadly, but not surprisngly, the legs are in the same, akward position. Thankfully, Teela's legs are nowhere near as loose as She-Ra's, and, although stuck in the wierd stepping forward position they aren't as terrible to pose because there isn't a solid skirt to restrict leg movement. In fact, the legs have more mobility than any male MOTU figure, they rotate at the hip 360 degrees and pivot out so there should be no problem sitting her in any MOTU vehicle. So that's a nice payoff for all the pain you'll go through just trying to get her to stand. So, as always, get some MOTU stands.  Anyway, back to the usual formular...

The head rotates 360 degrees, both arms rotate 360 degrees at the shoulder- so She-Ra's skirt was hindering the left arm as well as both legs it seems. The waist turns as part of the classic MOTU "power punch" action feature. Although the spring on my Teela seems a little off as the torso is a little off center no matter how much I try to click it back. Don't gert me wrong, the torso does face forward, but to a pandantic weirdo like me, I can notice how it doesn't quite 100% line up straight, and it winds me up.

"For just 9.99, you can sign up to the Eternian captain yoga"

Yes, the shot Filmation's animators seemed quite fond of

"Throat kick! Wait, do you have a throat?"

You don't get anything extraordinary with Teela, there's the always exccellent art card, depicting a georgeous image of Teela in the Filmation style, with a short blurb about the cartoon design originating in an animated advert for Castle Greyskull on the reverse. You get the Filmation style sword which- thanks to Teela's evolutionary development of a thumb- holds in the right hand a treat, as it should do as the handle is huge compare to the figure. It almost looks like it belongs to a larger scale figure, but it holds in just fine. Even the power punch wont dislodge it.It is a tight fit though, so I would imagine if you keep the sword in there for any great amount of time, the hand would bow out.  Less stellar, but just as welcome, is a shield, which clips above the wrist and looks the part, and, being a circular shield, doesn't look weird when the arm is posed up or down. Unlike the sword, it doesn't hold on very securely, so take care if you do the power punch.

*plays "aso sprach zarathustra"*

That's not shifting

CLANG!

Side by side with Super7 He-man

Full tooled up captian of the guard

In spite of the limitations of the vintage Teela base, Super 7 have done a decent job in bringing the Filmation design to three dimesions- like installing central heating and broadband in a stately home. The paint job is mostly on the money and is a better figure than the She-Ra, although that's a low bar to jump over. Teela was a major character in the Filmation show, and, as a fan of said cartoon, this figure passes muster. Where the She-Ra looked like another character dressed as She-Ra, this (even in passing) is absolutely cartoon Teela. But save yourself the misery of posing her and get a figure stand as well.



Company: Super7
Price paid: £21.97
Bought from: Kapow Toys
Age: 14+