I never wanted Netossa. Netossa is not
on my list of Princess of Power figures that needed to be made, let
alone characters that would be in the first ten. As a matter of fact,
Netossa is the winner of Phantom Troublemaker’s Official Dumbest
Name In the Entirety of the Masters of the Universe Universe Award.
On top of all that, Matty’s own
restrictions on the line prevent the Netossa figure from including a
functional version (by toy standards, anyway) of her own fucking
namesake. That’s like if Skeletor had a panda bear for a head.
Okay, maybe not quite like that.
Well, there is one more defining
characteristic that Netossa has and as much as I hate to say it, I
think it’s why we have a Netossa figure – she is a black lady.
And while I am not generally a proponent of diversity programs, I do
think toy lines should feature a wide assortment of races in the
least stereotypical possible way. That’s a little tough when you’re
dealing with a guy like Jitsu, whose bio might as well say he’s
good at math, but Netossa is actually pretty solid. She’s just a
tough lady who happens to be black. Given Mattel’s sensitivity to
racial issues in the 80’s I think we should all be thankful she
doesn’t have a spear gimmick.
So as much as I don’t care about the
character, I do think it was good for Mattel to get a little color in
the mix. The only real question is of how good of a job they did with
her.
First Glance: Two things
immediately strike me as bad about this figure – her hair color and
her cape (which is a bad thing to be struck by when it’s the
figure’s main gimmick). But everything else is surprisingly…
pretty cool.
Articulation: Netossa
has the standard female MOTUC articulation.
Head – ball joint
Shoulders – ball joint
Biceps – swivel
Elbows –pivot
Wrists – swivel
Waist - swivel
Hips – ball joint
Thighs – swivel
Knees – pivot
Boot tops - swivel
Ankles – rocker joint
While Netossa does sport the same sort
of thigh swivel joints as Frosta, her skirt is designed in such a way
that they are concealed, so that’s already great.
Like most recent MOTUC figures her
ankle joints aren’t much to speak of. They move forward and back
well enough, but the side-to-side is barely there.
Obviously her big hair interferes with
her head movement a bit, but her skirt is just large enough to allow
for more leg movement than you might expect.
Overall the joints on my figure are
good. She doesn’t have any trouble standing or holding poses and
I’m very pleased with the design of that skirt as far as how it
conceals and interacts with joints. Good job, there.
Sculpt: Netossa has a
new head, skirt, and… torso covering thingy. What do you call that?
I mean, technically it’s the top of her dress, but it’s a
separate piece. Whatever. You know what I mean.
As far as the sculpt goes Netossa’s
hair is nice. I like that it has a different shape and texture than
the other releases. Her head fin things are a bit odd, as they seem
unaffiliated. I’m not quite sure what they’re supposed to be
attached to. Also, the left one on my figure is a little crooked. Or
maybe it’s the right one. I’m not sure what they’re supposed
to look like. Her face is very well done and actually has racially
distinctive proportions as opposed to many dark-skinned figures (or
comic book characters, for that matter) that just look like
Caucasians with dark skin.
Her top is pretty wacky, and I like it.
The business around Netossa’s shoulders is wild. It doesn’t seem
to have any relevance to net-tossing actions, but it is unique and
gives the figure a striking look. Those things obviously interfere
with her arm movement, but I kind of don’t care because they’re
so zany. The scallops and layering of the details on her top almost
make her
seem more water-themed. Maybe that’s a fishing net? Is
Mer-Man her natural enemy? I dunno.
“Welcome to Netossa’s Fish Camp!
Our special today is fried Mer-Man with a side of Clawful cakes.”
I like the skirt (I would say “love”,
but I’m a dude and will reign in my enthusiasm for a toy lady
garment for the sake of my masculinity) not only for its
functionality but also for the design. The longer part that hangs
down in the front is another unique touch that lends the potentially
bland Netossa a bit more personality. It’s a cool look and
something different from the other ladies in the line.
The rest of the figure is parts we’ve
seen before and they all work. No real reason to give this lady new
boots or bracers with the amount of other distinctions she has.
Coloring: I hate her
hair color. I think it looks dumb. To the point where I might
actually paint it because otherwise this is turning out to be a very
good figure. But I can’t really fault the hair color. It does match
the vintage figure and that’s the whole point of this line. So I’m
not deducting points for it; I just don’t like it.
The face, on the other hand, looks
great. The colors of the makeup are bold without contrasting the skin
tone too much. I appreciate the amount of skill that goes into the
color design for the faces on the female figures in this line. There
is a fine line between looking like a dirty whore like Catra does and
looking fancy like She-Ra and Netossa.
Actually, I’m not a big fan of her
color scheme in general. I think part of it comes from Frosta being
do recent and having the same colors, but part of it is just wanting
something a little brighter. I think gold and purple would have
looked really good. Or they could have just been blatant and gone
with red, black, and green. But again – they’re sticking to the
look of the vintage figure. And in that they did a good job. There
are enough details and shades of blue to look neat.
All of the paint on my figure is
well-placed. There isn’t any blotching or slop and none of my
joints ended up stuck. The joints all look good color-matching-wise
as well. We got into a bit of a rut at the end of 2012 with all kinds
of poor decisions regarding plastics and paints and I had kind of
gotten used to shitty joints. It looks like we might getting back to
an acceptable standard in the line. Looking back, there are a few
figures I should have really rated a bit more harshly than I did.
Flair: And now for the
cape.
It’s dumb. It doesn’t hang well, it
doesn’t particularly resemble a net, and it isn’t functional in
any way because of the shape. I understand Matty and the Horsemen not
wanting to use soft goods in this line, but I think this is the one
instance where it should have been done. All it would have taken was
a drawstring design at the top of the cape and we would have a nice,
functional net that worked with the figure. Instead we have a big
hunk of rubber crap.
Not only that, it’s a big hunk of
rubber crap with a shitty paint job. The border and the interior
actually look very good, but that black spot on the back is fucking
terrible. Somebody somewhere claimed it was a planned part of the
design, but whoever planned that should be fired from ever making a
decision about a toy again. It’s a black splotch. It doesn’t
serve a purpose, it doesn’t indicate anything about a specific
portion of the cape, and it looks like shit.
Accessories: Netossa
comes with the same old Princess of Power shield, which I am quite
frankly sick of. It has a dark blue gem this time. I would have
preferred a sword. Actually, a trident would have been really cool
given the traditional gladiatorial combination of trident and net. If
Mer-Man’s wasn’t so honkin’ big I might give his to this poor
girl.
Packaging: It’s the
regular MOTUC blister card. Still neat and still effective. Here’s
her bio:
Exotic accent!
Value: No way. This is
simply not a twenty-five (!) dollar action figure. And not just
because she’s a character I didn’t care to own – this is
actually a pretty darn good figure aside from the net and the lack of
accessories. But it’s those things that hurt the value.
Overall: I simply can’t
imagine that Netossa is on anybody’s must-have list. As such, I
feel like the Horsemen and Mattel really should have put a little
extra effort into making her special. While I do like the figure on
its own, she isn’t anything I would miss having. Not the best start
to the new year. Better than I thought she’d be, but definitely not
exciting.
3
out of 5
Give it a year and I bet you’ll be
able to pick up a Netossa for cheap. I think I’m going to add mine
to the pile of figures I plan to paint someday. I honestly think If I
paint the hair black, do the purple and gold costume, and fashion a
fabric net this could be a great figure. I might even hunt down a
decent trident. I think I’ve got a spare one from an Aquaman in a
drawer somewhere.
-Phantom
I have to disagree. I think Castaspella is the stupidest name in all of MOTU.
ReplyDeleteThey're both totally stupid. For some reason Netossa bugs me more.
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