I’m not entirely sure how excited I
was about Mekanek. I never had any particular feelings about him when
I was a kid, but he also wasn’t one of the ones I disliked. I guess
the more human a character seemed the less interested I was in them.
Granted, a dude with a twenty foot long cyborg neck isn’t all that
human. Until you compare him to the fish man and the giant,
anthropomorphic leech.
I do, however, think Mekanek would be
great for morale. Let’s be honest – he could put on any number of
bawdy plays to entertain the troops. Between him and Man-E-Faces
Randor has a veritable USO show.
So as a character Mekanek may not be
all that great. But he makes a pretty solid toy, particularly in the
feature-challenged Masters of the Universe
Classics line. As much as I tend to hate action features on action figures, I find myself looking forward to the ways that the Four Horsemen figure their way around things. For example –
Classics line. As much as I tend to hate action features on action figures, I find myself looking forward to the ways that the Four Horsemen figure their way around things. For example –
- How the Horsemen did Tallstar. The original toy would have had extending limbs, but the Horsemen incorporated plug-in extension pieces. It worked very well and looked great. Well, except for the neck.
- The original Leech would have been a really stupid figure if his head and hands hadn’t been suction cups. But the Horsemen had to figure out a way to make him work without those features and they did.
- The whole point of Thunder Punch He-Man was to incorporate caps into an action figure. Today, caps are so lethal and dangerous that the Imperial Federal Government would shut down any toy manufacturer that even mentioned the word. That’s why any headwear accessories are always referred to as “hats”. So why should Matty even bother releasing a MOTUC Thunder Puncher? For the challenge, that’s why! And the Horsemen were up for it. Even without his signature feature, this He-Man variant was still awesome.
- Without his wheeled zipping action, the original Orko would have been an extremely lame toy, but the MOTUC Orko… well… you can’t win ‘em all.
So I’ve got to say I was very excited
to see how Mekanek would turn out, even if I wasn’t necessarily
stoked about owning the character.
First Glance: In hand he
does look good. Even without the neck feature Mekanek is still a
pretty solid figure. There’s enough style that he doesn’t seem
generic.
Articulation: Mekanek
Head – ball joint
Shoulders – ball joint
Biceps – swivel
Elbows – pivot
Wrists – swivel
Abdomen – pivot
Waist – swivel
Hips – ball joint
Thighs – swivel
Knees – pivot
Calves - swivel
Ankles – rocker joint
Mine has loose ankles, which is a big
problem with a character this top-heavy. I had to lean him against
Castle Grayskull on my shelf. Other than that all of his joints are
functional. His head pops off easily – as do most MOTUC figures’
– and the neck extensions plug in with just a bit of effort.
Sculpt: I love this
guy’s head. It looks like a Doctor Who alien. It’s seriously out
of 60’s sci-fi. The Horsemen produced a clean, angular sculpt that
stands out among all of the other weird noggins in the MOTUC line. I
like how his goggles look like they’re squinting. I kind of wish he
had a little smile than his case of dour-mouth, but it’s not a big
deal – just preference. For some reason I think of Mekanek as being
cheerful and excited. Perhaps it’s the phallic thing.
His body is the standard He-Man body,
but with matching studded wristbands. I know this is how he’s
supposed to look, but his body isn’t very exciting. I think it
would have been really cool to have Roboto’s arms and legs on this
guy. I mean, it would have pissed people off because it was wrong,
but it would have looked cool.
Mekanek sports the shorter fur loin
cloth and it works. For whatever reason I do think he looks better
with the short one. Perhaps it’s the dichotomy of the short loin
cloth and the long neck. Or perhaps I just wanted to say “dichotomy”.
The boots are the one thing I really
would have changed. I like silver and I like furry boots, but I do
not like silver furry boots. I think He-Ro’s boots would have been
way better here.
Coloring: The body may
be a bit bland, but I do totally dig the color scheme. The red, blue,
and silver with the dark brown and metallic green of the loin cloth
and belt looks great.
The head is very bold. The red and
silver of the goggles and helmet really draw the eye on top of the
Caucasian-tone jaw. And that is one thing I like a lot about
Mekanek’s design - he just has a few little pieces of exposed
flesh. He would pass for a robot if not for those. I can’t quite
put my finger on it, but that really appeals to me for some reason.
The metallic green of the wristbands
and the belt is a great accent. Without these pieces the other colors
might seem a little bland. There’s also some nice highlighting on
these pieces.
If they absolutely had to go with
silver furry boots, I do wish they had used a darker color for the
trim. Maybe not black, but a very dark grey would have looked better,
I think.
All of the apps on my Mekanek are tight
and accurate. I didn’t notice any spots that had the black plastic
problem. As a matter of fact, Mekanek has this feel like he belongs
to late 2011/early 2012’s crop of figures. The last few months have
been a little rough, quality-wise, so it was nice to have one without
a single glaring problem in that department.
Flair: Mekanek is
sporting Stinkor’s chest gear. It’s exactly the same minus
the rebreather plug-in thingy. I don’t understand how or why, but
it works just as well for Mekanek as it did for ol’ Stinky. I
particularly like the way they did the colors. The silver portions
help to make this piece look much different from Stinkor’s orange
vest even though it isn’t.
Accessories: Mekanek
comes with two different neck extension pieces and a big, yellow bat.
I’ve hated that stupid fucking bat
ever since I was a kid. It’s too long and goofy. I don’t like the
weird diamond patterns. And what’s with the divot in the top? Do
they eat ice cream out of the fucking things? I mean, I’m sure it
would totally suck to get your head caved in with this thing, but
mainly because you got killed by such a stupid-looking piece of shit.
The neck pieces look great. The
circuits and wires and stuff sculpted on look genuinely good and not
like just a bunch of busy crap like, oh, that bat. I love that Matty
gave us two different-length pieces. This is how they made up for his
neck not actually extending. What we got is actually better because
his neck goes way longer than it would’ve. The pieces take a bit of
effort to snap into place, but better that than if they were too
loose. And yes – you can combine them to create what I call
“Ridikunek”:
Packaging: It’s the
regular MOTUC blister card. Still neat and still effective. Here’s
his bio:
The fact that his neck is magic rather
than science seems a little off to me. It’s fine that the Sorceress
healed him, but I always thought Duncan fitted him with the neck.
Value: $28.70 (including
shipping) is a bit steep. Mekanek is fine, but he is not one of the
more outstanding toys from the line visually. I suppose I should cut
him some slack because the neck was done so well, but I won’t.
Overall: A couple of
little tweaks here and there could have made Mekanek a true must-have
figure. As it is I don’t think I would be too heartbroken if I had
missed him. But MAtty did a very good job recreating the vintage figure.
4 out of 5
But, he is Mekanek and he is a valuable
member of the Masters (in stories, anyway). If you need him, you can
check out BigBad or eBay.
-Phantom
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