I’m going to cheat a little bit and
call this guy a Halloween review so he doesn’t slip too far back
like Sir Laser-Lot already has. And I’m not cheating too
badly, because I just couldn’t find a way to justify throwing a
Mekanek review in here. Even with my snazzy Halloween background.
Besides, I think having a skull for a
head and a vicious dragon that looks more than a little bit like a
THINGS chained to your back qualifies you.
I definitely didn’t have a Dragon
Blaster Skeletor when I was a kid. I didn’t have a very large
Masters of the Universe collection and I certainly didn’t have any
of the variants of He-Man or his nemesis. It’s part of what makes
me kind of happy to see these come out now – they’re relatively
new variants to me. I mean, of course I knew of them; but I’ve
never had a version in hand before.
This was one I was looking forward to
getting. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was stoked, but the
dragon factor definitely got me more excited than I was for, say,
Thun-Derp-Unch He-Man. And once again there were just enough
new and different pieces to make this guy feel fresh.
Okay, I didn’t go into it the other
day in my Black Mask review, but my September order from
Mattycollector got me really fired up.
Another thing to be clear on – the
cheaper shipping option is not the United States Postal Service.
It is a company called Newgistics that is on par with Digital River
for general levels of incompetence. As a matter of fact, I suspect
they may be a branch of Digital River. Newgistics picks the package
up from Mattel’s distribution center and delivers it to your local
post office and it is the most ridiculous and inefficient delivery I
have ever had the misfortune to witness. Here is the route mine took
this time:
Date | Time | Description | Location | |
9/29/2012 | 03:44 PM | Delivered | NEIGHBORHOOD,GA ZIP | |
9/29/2012 | 05:51 AM | Arrival at USPS | LOCAL POST OFFICE | |
9/25/2012 | 05:20 AM | Accepted by USPS | LOCAL POST OFFICE | |
9/21/2012 | 01:23 PM | In transit | ATLANTA,GA 30349-3623 | |
9/21/2012 | 12:28 PM | Electronic Shipping Sent to USPS | ||
9/21/2012 | 12:28 PM | In transit | ATLANTA,GA 30349-3623 | |
9/20/2012 | 05:17 PM | In transit | Fishers,IN 46037 | |
9/20/2012 | 08:46 AM | In transit | Fishers,IN 46037 | |
9/18/2012 | 06:54 PM | In transit | Sparks,NV 89441 | |
9/18/2012 | 01:46 PM | Arrived at Shipping Facility | Sparks,NV 89441 | |
9/15/2012 | 01:27 AM | Electronic Shipping Info Received | Ontario,CA 91761 |
My deliveries (and those of many
others, according to the Mattycollector forums) always end up
spending a couple of days in Sparks, NV. I don’t know why. And they
always sit at the local post office for a couple of days before being
sent out for delivery. It’s pretty ridiculous. Now, I can’t claim
to know anything about delivering goods. But I do know that there is
not a single other entity on the internet that I do business with
that takes so long and charges so much to get me my orders. And this
time it took far too long.
To have been shipped on the 15th
and then not arrive until the 29th is fucking absurd. The
invoice estimated delivery on 9/27 or 9/28, which is already
ridiculous, but I do usually get my stuff a couple of days before the
estimated delivery date. And then there’s the fact that Monkey,
Evil, and Carl always get theirs a day before I do. And
received theirs an entire week before me this time. Heck, Carl
ordered an extra set of Snake Men the day of the sale and got them
several days before my items arrived. That just isn’t acceptable.
First Glance: This is
another one of those big, bulky figures that fills up the package
quite nicely. I’m a little worried about him standing up, though.
That dragon is big. This looks like yet another variation on
Skeletor’s head, as well. I’m not sure where this design comes
from, but I’m sure one of you knowledgeable Phantomaniacs will be
happy to clue me in.
Articulation: Dragon
Blaster Skeletor has all of the same articulation as any other
Masters of the Universe Classics figure, those some of the joints are
less useful than others.
Head – ball joint
Shoulders – ball joint
Biceps – swivel
Elbows – pivot
Wrists – swivel
Abdomen – pivot
Waist – swivel
Hips – ball joint/swivel
Knees – pivot
Calves - swivel
Ankles – rocker joint
The abdominal joint is rendered mostly
useless by the chest armor. This hasn’t really been an issue with
other releases with chest armor – the Battle Armor figures,
Man-At-Arms, Stinkor – but Skeletor’s armor is different because
of the dragon. It isn’t a huge problem, but I thought it was worth
mentioning.
This Skeletor’s elbows don’t work
very well, either. This is because they stuck Kobra Kahn’s forearms
on regular biceps and I guess that wasn’t meant to be. The joints
only bend to about sixty percent of their normal range. Again, not a
huge deal, but it kind of irritated me when I was posing this guy for
pictures.
The rest of the joints all function
perfectly well. They are mobile and tight enough to hold poses.
Sculpt: The only thing
completely new on this figure is the head. It’s another new
Skeletor head that I’m sure is based on something Roger Sweet drew
on a napkin. I have liked every new Skeletor head better than the
first MOTUC one and this is no exception.
I’m not sure how I feel about these
forearms. They kind of fall under the “just because” category. I
mean, they do look neat and they’re different from the norm, but
I’m not sure I like Skeletor with spiny forearms and the fact that
it messed with the depth of the pivot really bugs me.
The rest of Dragon Blaster Skeletor is
all the same parts we’ve come to know and love. I definitely prefer
it when Skeletor has claw feet as opposed to boot feet. I still don’t
quite understand what’s going on here, though. Why can we see his
toenails? Are these socks? Or does he have regular feet and these are
some kind of weird, KISS-esque demon boots with toes sculpted on?
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH SKELETOR’S FEET!?!
I do like his weird, new calves that
look like they are all feathered or something, though.
Coloring: Mattel went to
Sherwin Williams and picked up a bucket of “Skeletor Blue” for
this guy. Unfortunately, they painted that over a black plastic body,
so parts of it look like shit. This set of figures – Skeletor,
Mekanek, and the Snake Men – are the first ones that I have
experienced a problem with the black plastic, but this absolutely has
to stop. Never mind wear and tear on the figures, I am seeing exposed
black straight out of the package:
Not acceptable in any way, especially
not from a higher-priced collector line.
Quality issues aside, the actual
palette and application on Dragon Blaster Skeletor is great.
The dragon itself looks fantastic and
is very reminiscent of Draego-Man. The transitions between the shades
of red and purple are very nice. The facial details are tight and
accurate.
Flair: It could be
argued that the dragon is an accessory, but it is permanently
attached to Skeletor’s chest armor by way of the chain. Since I
don’t remove these types of chest armor out of fear of not being
able to get them back on I’m going to list the dragon as Flair.
The chest armor is new and unique. The
sides where it clasps together are extremely thick and bulky and
prevent the arms from hanging properly at the figure’s sides. This
bothers me every time, but I understand. The only solution to this
would be to just sculpt the torso as the armor and that would
probably be cost prohibitive. And there would likely be some
customers (not fans – customers) that wouldn’t like that
anyway.
The dragon is… weird. I certainly
don’t dislike it, but that head is very odd. This is an instance
where I might have preferred it if the Four Horsemen had deviated
from the vintage figure’s design. An open mouth would have been
nice since this dragon is, technically, supposed to be blasting.
As an update of the vintage figure this
dragon is very successful. I don’t find it to be as cartoony as
some do and I kind of have to like the head because it does look like
a THINGS:
The body is very well done for being
all bunched up on Skeletor’s back and looks more like a separate,
organic form than the original. I actually buy that this is a
creature chained to Skeletor as opposed to just some incredibly
weird-shaped armor/weapon thing.
The chain itself is really neat. It is
attached to a padlocked collar on the dragon (the padlock is actually
a separate piece), runs through a raised piece on the front of the
chestplate, and attaches to a removable cuff on Skeletor’s left
hand. Lil’ Troublemaker was very impressed that it was an actual
chain. This is because we had recently had a discussion about the new
TMNT Michelangelo’s nunchaku and how disappointed we both were that
they are each a single piece of plastic rather than having linked
chains in the middle like the prototype did.
Anyway, at first it might seem like
Skeletor’s left arm is a bit restricted when the cuff is attached.
But the chain does feed through that loop on the chest with some help
and gives a bit more range to the arm.
The chest armor is actually kind of
dull. I like the big studs and the general design, but I feel like it
should have had some texture. Maybe chain mail or something. Plates;
I dunno. Not scales because that would have blended in with the
dragon and looked odd.
Accessories: Skeletor
comes with his sword. It’s the same sword we’ve always seen and I
can’t fault that because what else are you going to give this guy?
Mattel could’ve done something gimmicky that didn’t make any
sense just for the sake of doing something different. My only thought
was that maybe they could have done a blade that was partially heated
up or something – maybe halfway up the blade it could’ve been red
and orange; maybe even translucent. But what we got is perfectly
fine. The sculpt on this sword is perfect and the paint is subtle but
exactly how I would have done it. Just a slightly different shade on
the hilt and raised portion of the sword.
He also includes the third new minicomic. I'll get to those at some point.
Packaging: A nice-looking blister card with a bio on the back.
I've really got nothing more to say. I dig these.
Value: $28.70 (including
shipping) for a six inch scale figure with a lot of shared parts. Not
very good. Granted, the shipping was diluted by being included with
other figures, but that would probably only knock a dollar or two
off. This figure would probably be okay if it legitimately cost
twenty dollars.
Overall: The black
plastic must stop. Period. I have accepted a lot of small
imperfections from this line, but having black plastic showing
through inferior paint jobs is not okay with me.
And I can’t help but be a little
bothered by the dragon head. It just isn’t quite right.
3
out of 5
This guy is far from a must-have. They
did a decent job and he is a novel figure, but I just can’t get too
excited about him. He might end up on eBay sooner than later.
Phantom
Troublemaker vs. 31 Days of Halloween
If you’re new here or haven’t been
keeping up, this is where I give my thoughts on SyFy’s “31 days
of Halloween” programming. Obviously I haven’t seen everything
I’ll be talking about, but that’s kind of what the internet is
all about – talking out of your ass.
Each day I will cover the schedule from
the time my post goes live (usually 11 AM) through the following 24
hours. On Fridays I will cover the whole weekend, which is a huge
pain in the ass but also kind of fun.
Enjoy!
11:00
AM – 1:00 PM – Ghost Hunters
– If this show was any good at all, wouldn’t Ray
Parker, Jr. have written a song about it?
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 1
2:00
PM – 10:00 PM – Face Off – Get caught up on this
great show about a bunch of makeup artists who are not only talented
but actually seem like pretty swell folks. The only real asshole was
this guy named Joe and he walked out during the first episode.
Everybody else is pretty cool. The episode from 9 – 10 is a new one
and features the gang creating original cyborg makeups. It should be
really good. But if you do Steampunk it had better be good or Glen
will absolutely shit on you.
Halloween score – 4
Quality score – 5
10:00
PM – 11:00 PM – Hot Set – This is Face Off’s
less interesting but still watchable little brother. It’s about
entire sets as opposed to single makeups and it’s pretty good. This
is a new episode called “Basement of Horrors”, so if you’re
going to check one out, this is it.
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 4
11:00
PM – 12:00 AM – Face Off – A replay of nine
o’clock’s “Junkyard Cyborg”.
Halloween score – 3
Quality score – 5
WEDNESDAY
12:00
AM – 1:00 AM – Hot Set – A replay of “Basement
of Horrors”.
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 3
1:00
AM – 3:00 AM – Dark Relic – A knight battles a
demon somebody accidentally unleashed on the world back before people
had showers or electric razors.
Halloween score – 2
Quality score – 3
3:00
AM – 5:00 AM – Monster Ark – This one
disappointed me last year by being about a singular monster rather
than an entire ark full of monsters (like Noah’s Ark). I’m still
disappointed.
Halloween score – 3
Quality score – 2
5:00
AM – 8:00 AM – Paid Programming – I have nothing
clever to say about SyFy’s Paid Programming today. Except maybe to
point out the similarities between it and movies. You know how with
movies you might say, “well, I’ll just wait for it to come out on
DVD”? Now there might be a tendency to do the same thing with
infomercials – “I’ll just wait for it to show up at the AS Seen
On TV store”.
Halloween score – 1
Quality score – 5
8:00
AM – 11:00 AM – Ghost Hunters – Hunting ghosts
like a motherfucker.
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 0
Come back tomorrow for a Q&A with
Alucard, a trio of horror rock maestros from Tennessee!
-Phantom
Great review of a figure I initially wanted, but passed on because...yeah, that black plastic has got to go. I have refused to purchase any MOTUC figures since they've started that crap. Which mean I've passed on several I wanted, including Sir Laser Lot, the Snake Men, and Mekaneck.
ReplyDeleteIn 2013 I really want Jitsu and the Fighting Foe Men, but if they aren't back to molding limbs in the proper color that will absolutely be the end of the line for me.
I have heard from a fairly unreliable source that Dekker will be the last to use black plastic. I certainly hope that is the case. I don't think it bothers me as much as it does some folks, but it is utterly unacceptable.
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